To Serve and Protect
by makesmyheadspin
Summary: Eric & Sookie's paths cross at the right time. He's a homicide detective assigned to investigate a suicide that ultimately leads to the kidnapping of his girlfriend, Sookie. Who took her and how will he get her back? AH
1. Feel That Fire

Okay, so this was going to be a one shot, based on a resurrected plot bunny that birthed itself last fall. But then a small twitter war broke out over Detective!Eric, and the next thing I know, my teeny tiny plot bunny went and multiplied itself and the idea for a short multi-chapter story was born. I don't know how frequently I'll be updating this. I know I have about a billion projects going, and I promise I'm working on all of them little by little.

Enjoy yakking out of me. This baby is unbeta'd, but preread by **scribeninja, Chanel Addict and kjwrit**, so thanks to them for their hilarious commentary and feedback. I love you girls. We really need to get Kacy on gchat. Her life will never be the same.

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Chapter 1: Feel That Fire

I was bored out of my mind. I knew absolutely nothing about computers. All the jokes Bill was making about Apple versus personal computers were going right over my head. I used my best fake-but-sounds-genuine laugh to get through the night. Oh, and the constant flow of gin and tonic may have helped. Okay, so it was completely responsible for me not just walking out mid-date.

The kicker was, the date wasn't even my idea. My Gran had set me up, thinking I needed to get back out there after breaking up with Quinn. She was anxious for great grandbabies, constantly reminding me she wasn't going to live forever, and she wanted to make sure I was settled before she passed on. Honestly, she was more likely to have luck with Jason than she was me. In fact, it was rather shocking he hadn't already knocked up at dozen or so women.

Furthermore, Gran didn't quite seem to get that I wasn't at all distraught over losing Quinn. I'd dumped him flat on his ass when I realized he was involved in some shady business I didn't want any part of. He'd never fully clarified what it was he did, exactly, but I knew he was part of some underground Fight Club sort of thing. Yeah, no thanks.

But, to appease Gran and keep her from thinking I was a lost cause, I agreed to go out with Bill when she tried her hand at setting us up. On paper, Bill was perfect. He was southern, and had those genteel southern manners I'd been raised to not only appreciate, but pass along to my own children. If I'm honest, I did rather enjoy his accent, but that wasn't reason enough to find him interesting. In spite of his lovely Antebellum home, impressive job and luxury car, I was hard pressed to find anything remotely fascinating about him.

It was obvious to me Gran had bullied him into the date as much as she had me. In fact, he confessed on the drive over that he was desperate to get back with his ex, Judith. They'd parted company because he hadn't thought he was ready for a bigger commitment, and Judith wanted the American dream. After a series of failed relationships, he realized just how big a mistake he'd made by letting Judith go.

Personally, I'd never been in love. Either I had something more important to focus on than relationships, or the men I did actually give a chance to, managed to mess it all up by spending more time talking to my breasts than they did me. The closest I'd come to being in love was the six month relationship I'd had with Alcide before he was transferred out of the Air Force base in Shreveport. While he was stationed up at Nellis Air Force Base, he met- and married- Maria Starr Cooper, effectively ending our relationship. Nine months later, almost to the day, she gave birth to their daughter. She was a pretty little girl. She had dark, curly hair like her parents, and her father's emerald green eyes. I swear, I wasn't at all jealous.

But anyway...my inability to maintain a relationship that lasted longer than a few seasons was how I ended up at the snoozefest I was currently drinking my body weight through. I excused myself to refresh my drink, and moved through the crowded ballroom to the bar. It was a semi-formal launch party for Bill's newest technological achievement. Apparently, he'd built a search engine that was being called 'the next Google,' whatever the hell that means.

My college roommate, Amelia, had loaned me a Vera Wang dress for the party. Well, technically, the dress belonged to her girlfriend, Pam, but that was neither here nor there. The important thing was, it was a pale shade of lavender that made my tan pop, and my hair seem shinier. The empire waist of the dress hid what I considered to be my problem areas. You know, hips, thighs, ass... yeah, those areas. My breasts, meanwhile, were nicely displayed without making me look whorish, a task not easily completed when God saw fit to bless me with double D cups.

I managed to get through the crowd, and find a place at the bar. I wisely leaned over, putting my assets to work to get the bartender's attention whenever he finally turned around. When he did, I had to stop myself from grinning like I'd just stepped off the special bus. He was gorgeous. Blond bedhead, nearly a foot taller than me and a body packed into tight black pants and a crisp, white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He was the kind of good looking that could make a girl forget her name, not to mention her reason for approaching the bar to begin with.

"What can I get you?" he smiled at me.

A whole slew of things ran through my mind. Marriage. Babies. White picket fence. A golden retriever. You know, the American Dream. Somehow, I didn't think that was what he meant.

"Uh, champagne." I hated champagne.

"Coming right up," he said with a nod of his head.

Champagne was the right thing to say. I watched as he pulled an uncorked bottle from a tub full of ice. The muscles of his arms flexed with his movements. I was dangerously close to swooning. I told myself to get it together, but that only served to remind me of how long it had been since I found someone who made my heart race like it was in that moment. I'd liked Quinn, but I'd never had butterflies, much less the mothra that seemed to have bloomed from out of nowhere in the pit of my stomach.

"Anything else?" he asked after setting the glass in front of me.

Your phone number? Yeah, I was about to slap myself. "No, thanks, that'll do it."

"You're welcome," he winked, and my panties poofed away, I was sure of it.

Bill found me a short time later. Stupid dinner was being served so we had to take our seats. I was never more thankful for assigned seating than I was when I realized my seat gave me a clear shot of the bar. I watched the hot bartender clean up his station and refill the occasional drink for someone too impatient to wait for a waiter or a waitress to do it for him. There was more boring talk about computers, servers, firewalls, viruses and more technical terms I was completely unfamiliar with. If Apple didn't make an app for it, I was lost.

After dinner was finished, Bill excused himself to get ready for his big presentation. I excused myself to go to the ladies room, and it was just my luck that the hot bartender was out in the lobby, fiddling with his own iPhone. He seemed rather frustrated, and cursed under his breath about the phone being too small for his hands. I bit my cheeks to keep from laughing, but had to step forward when he moved like he was going to throw the phone against the wall.

"Don't do that!" I grabbed his hand with both of mine.

He whipped around and smiled at me. "I hate this fucking thing. What happened to a phone just being a phone?"

"Well, I think it stopped being 1990," I laughed quietly and said, "Besides, it's not the phone's fault you're a giant."

"I'm hardly a giant," he smirked at me.

I looked him up and down and said, "You look pretty giant to me."

Seriously, he had to be at least six inches taller than me, and I was wearing five inch heels that were pinching my feet in the most painful way. I wanted to stay there and talk to him, but I really had to pee and get back to my seat. It would have been really rude to blow off Bill's presentation in favor of dragging the hot bartender (who's name I didn't even know) into a closet to make out with him.

"Well, I suppose not everyone can be so... dainty."

Now there's a word that had never been used to describe me before. Bitchy, selfish, cold, busty, tease...all words that had been used against me at one point or another. Dainty just seemed to be out of place with the rest of the list, but I wasn't about to complain.

"Well, I should be going. I have to get back to my seat before my date starts on his presentation." I rolled my eyes. "Be good to that iPhone."

"I'll try not to fee-fie-fo-fum it to an early death," he laughed quietly.

"Good. Well, I'll see you around, then." I gave him one last smile, and headed toward the bathroom.

I'll admit, I was a little disappointed when he didn't try to stop me so he could give me his name, or phone number, but I'd just shake it off. Cute as he was, it was probably better I stayed away anyhow. He probably had a girlfriend waiting at home for him. I mean, why wouldn't he? Why would a guy like him be single?

I was in the middle of touching up my lipstick when a woman old enough to be my mother walked into the bathroom with a confused look on her face. I was the only one in the room, so when her eyes settled on me, I found it strange that she smiled like she was relieved. Did we know each other?

"Excuse me, Miss, a tall, blond gentleman asked me to give this to you," she handed me a slip of paper.

"Thanks." I took it from her and flipped it open.

I'd really like to see you again. Call me sometime. Eric

His phone number was listed under it, and I grinned broadly. I folded the piece of paper and slipped it into my clutch. The woman looked at me expectantly, and I wondered if she had been given instructions to return a message.

"Was there something else?" I asked politely.

"No," she said quickly, but followed up with, "I don't mean to tell you your business, but I'll tell you, I'd leave my husband of thirty years for that one."

I couldn't help but laugh, even if her over-share was rather appalling. I let his name roll around in my head. Eric. Eric. I liked it. It suited him. I was suddenly overcome with the image of him in fur pelts, captaining a Viking ship. My insides melted a little, and I started thinking dirty thoughts about being plundered and pillaged. I really needed to get back to my seat.

"Thanks again." I smiled at the woman before ducking out of the ladies room.

I slipped into the ballroom and glanced over at the bar. Bill had already started talking. Eric was leaned against the sink, hands stuffed into his pockets. I grabbed one of the passing waiters and jotted down a return note for Eric, and asked the waiter to take it over to the bar for me. Without waiting to see his reaction to my note, I headed back to my table and sat down.

I was sitting there for maybe five minutes when a glass of champagne came my way. I looked over at the bar. Eric was smiling at me. I tipped my glass in his direction and took a sip. Maybe champagne wasn't so bad after all.

* * *

I didn't tell anyone about Eric. For two days, I tortured myself before finally giving in and calling him. It seemed only fair since he had been the one to make the first move. He was happy to hear from me, which was good, since I would have hated to call him only to find out he was just trying to be nice. Or worse, the number was a fake.

I'll admit, I've done the fake number thing before, but only with really pushy assholes who don't seem to be able to take no for an answer. I always laugh when they call the number, only to get Lafayette on the other end of the line, and spend the entire conversation feeling really awkward at the passes being made at them, or trying to convince themselves they must have dialed the wrong number. It was cheap entertainment, as mean as it was.

Eric and I made a date for the following night. I agreed to meet him at Don's Dock, a restaurant that was half way between Bon Temps and Shreveport. It was a small, rather informal place that was mostly frequented by locals. Tourists were into fancy places with big names. Don's Dock was nestled in a woodsy area near a retention pond. The tables inside were long, and had benches instead of regular chairs.

Outside were regular tables. You had to put up with the bugs, but it was worth it. You got a little more privacy and personal space. The funny thing was, most people preferred to be crammed into the restaurant's tiny dining room like fresh sardines. Eric and I managed to find a table with a citronella candle at the center of it. Lynyrd Skynyrd was playing, which wasn't too unusual. Don Perdeaux had a thing for southern rock. It wasn't unusual to hear Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers, the Black Crowes, CCR, Charlie Daniels Band, Eagles, and even Kings of Leon playing down at the dock.

One of the big draws was the floating dance floor out in the center of the retention pond. On a weekend night, it was more likely than not that if you went out to the dance floor, you'd be swimming to shore. No one seemed to mind, and in the summer months, the dip was a welcome treat. It was early June. Already, it was muggy as all get out, and even though the sun was setting, temperatures were still in the low eighties.

Eric was dressed in a pair of jeans slung low on his hips with a fitted, black t-shirt and a pair of Chucks. I was dressed in a denim mini-skirt, red and white plaid cap sleeved shirt and a pair of red heels my Gran considered to be scandalous. My hair was piled up on my head since it was too warm to leave it down the way I wanted to. I didn't have much makeup on, but my summer tan had already taken hold, thanks to hours of sunbathing on the weekends.

I sat across from Eric with my legs crossed, so that one bounced in his line of sight if he looked to his right. We ordered our drinks, and Eric commented on the restaurant. He was a first timer, but that wasn't too surprising to me.

"Unless you grew up around these parts, this isn't the sort of place most people would come to." I explained.

"I don't know why. Is the food not good?"

"It's amazing. The gumbo alone is to die for, but throw in an order of hush puppies?" I moaned loudly and closed my eyes at the thought. When I looked at Eric again, his mouth was hanging open slightly and his eyes were glazed over. "What?"

"Nothing," he shook himself. "So if you could only recommend one thing from the menu, it would be?"

I thought about it for a moment and said, "Well, I guess it depends on whether or not you like spicy."

"I'm adventurous when it comes to food."

"Then I would suggest the Jambalaya with the crab cake side." I smiled at him.

"Sounds delicious."

"It is. The crab is just the right amount of sweet-" I was going to say more, but the waitress came back with our drinks.

We gave our dinner orders and I completely didn't even notice when I started singing along with the Marshall Tucker Band. Eric watched me with amusement, and it took me a minute to figure out why. I slapped my hand over my mouth in embarrassment.

"I am so sorry! I shouldn't be allowed to sing in public." I laughed at myself.

"Eh, don't be too hard on yourself. I've certainly heard worse."

"Yeah, I guess as a bartender, you probably would, huh?"

Eric laughed and said, "I have a confession to make."

"Really? Do tell." I leaned forward.

"I'm not really a bartender. I was filling in for my brother. He had finals to study for, so I told him I'd take his shift."

"That's very nice of you."

"He's working really hard to finish college. He's studying psychology, with the hopes of being the next Dr. Phil, or something."

"Oh, God, why? Isn't one enough?" I laughed along with Eric.

"Well, he went through a rough time when he was younger. His parents were murdered in front of him when he was three. He was raised by his uncle after after that, who married my Mom when I was twelve. So, Alexei is technically my step-brother, but I don't really think of him that way. He's been in my life for more than half of it. To me, he's just my brother." Eric explained.

"Wow, that's a rough way to start life." It made me think of my own parents, both of whom had died before I got the chance to know them. "My parents died when I was eight. They were on their way back from a wedding in Mississippi and got t-boned by a trucker who wasn't paying attention."

"I'm sorry to hear that," he said sincerely.

"Thank you," I offered a sad smile, and sipped my sweet tea. "Let's talk about something else. This is a depressing subject."

Over dinner, I learned that Eric was twenty-nine and a homicide detective for the Shreveport police department. He explained he'd gotten into the profession on account of Alexei's parents' murders never being prosecuted. Alexei had been able to identify the shooters, but a judge had thrown out the identification because Alexei was so young at the time. Eric wanted to help the families of victims, to make sure they got the justice Alexei never did.

Eric's favorite movie was Casino (he was a huge Robert DeNiro fan), he loved grunge music, his favorite food was macaroni and cheese (the fresh, baked kind and not the boxed crap) and his Corvette was his first child. He had a great sense of humor, was very smart and quoted authors without drawing attention to it. By the time he asked me to dance after we were done eating, I think I was already half way in love with him.

We swayed in time with the Allman Brothers. It wasn't the song I would have chosen for our first dance, but the guitar and slow rhythm provided all the inspiration I needed to move my hips slowly as we moved around the floating dock. I was delighted to learn he wasn't wearing cologne, yet still managed to smell amazing. His large hand was warm on the small of my back. His fingers were flirting with the waistband of my skirt, occasionally slipping just under it. Every time he did it, I shivered.

Eventually the close contact seemed to get to Eric as well. The evidence was pressed against my hip. Either he was carrying his service revolver, or I'd hit the jackpot. I was tempted to ask, but it seemed far too cheesy to throw out a line like that, and I didn't want what was easily the best first date I'd ever been on to go in the toilet because I thought I was funny.

We danced until I started to complain about my feet hurting, at which point, Eric swept me up like it was nothing, and carried me off the dance floor and back to the restaurant. We sat at our table and talked a while longer. He told me about college, and then the time he'd spent in the police academy. He'd been promoted quickly, having worked very steadily toward his goal of making detective before his thirtieth birthday.

It turned out his vast experience with off-key singers came from his days in the frat house, and even more so when he was on patrol, picking up drunks who needed to spend the night cooling their jets in county lock up. I smirked and told him he'd probably picked up my brother a time or two. In spite of our parents dying in a car accident, he hadn't quite gotten the point that drunk driving was a no-no. I often wondered how we were even related.

Since Don's Dock didn't serve anything harder than beer, the crowd thinned out pretty well by eleven. Either folks were going to head home for the evening, or off to whatever local watering hole was their favorite. I'd been waiting tables at Merlotte's since I was in college. I knew I needed to find another job, but I was just so comfortable there. It was easy to stay right where I was. I didn't make a whole lot of money, but I'd managed to save up enough to move into a place of my own two years before.

It was a small rental house my boss owned not too far from the bar. In fact, he owned all of the houses on that block. He cut me a deal on the rent, which he didn't need to do, but I appreciated nonetheless. He knew I was struggling to pay off my car and my remaining college loans. I knew he had a thing for me, but it was just never going to happen. As sweet as Sam was, he just wasn't my type.

The closing bell rang from inside. Our waitress brought the bill, and after a short argument over who was going to pay, I conceded and let Eric have it on the condition I got it next time. He smiled at the idea of next time, and he wasn't the only one. I definitely wanted to see him again. Was tomorrow too soon? I told myself to slow down and not act like a desperate spinster, but my heart was beyond that already.

There was just something about him I was drawn to. I couldn't put my finger on what it was, exactly, but it felt like there was a pull between us. It didn't escape my notice one bit that he reached across the table for my hand after we finished dancing. I'd made the mistake of kicking my shoes off after we sat down, and putting them on again when we were forced to leave Don's Dock was a bigger problem than I anticipated. My feet were swollen and had made the executive decision they wanted no part in my killer, five inch fuck me heels.

"Hop on," Eric looked over his shoulder at me.

"Hop on what?"

"My back," he laughed as if it were the most natural suggestion in the world.

"Uh, I appreciate the offer, but I'm wearing a very short skirt which isn't really optimal for piggyback rides. Besides, I've been walking on gravel since I was...well, since I learned to walk."

Eric sighed and before I could argue, he swept me up again. "You know, I'm starting to think you wore those shoes on purpose."

I feigned shock and said, "Rats, you're onto my evil plan. How'd I do?"

My answer came in the form of a kiss that made my toes curl in less than two seconds. His lips were soft and warm, and the minty sweetness of his tea clung to them. I tried to remember a kiss that got such a reaction out of me, and I couldn't. We kept on kissing until someone rudely cleared their throat because we were blocking the path to the parking lot.

"Okay, this is probably really inappropriate to say, but you have to put me down before I climb you like a jungle gym." I was completely serious.

Eric chuckled and asked, "What if that doesn't bother me at all?"

"Down, boy." I snapped my teeth at him, and he set me down.

He walked me to my car, and I was suddenly very sorry I hadn't let him pick me up like he'd offered to. We made small talk until all of the other cars in the lot had vanished but ours. Eric was parked a few spaces down from me. He wasn't kidding about his Corvette. It was a sexy car, no doubt about it. I would have figured him for more of a Jeep kind of guy, or something built for off-roading. A Corvette definitely wasn't a car built for anything but going fast, making noise and looking good.

As soon as we were alone, we were making out. He put me on the hood of my very reliable Chevy Malibu, and proceeded to kiss me like he was going off to war, instead of the twenty miles home. My legs wrapped around his hips to pull him closer. I let my hands do a little wandering, and figured since he'd been bold enough to put his fingers down the back of my skirt before he'd even kissed me, it wasn't completely out of line if I full on grabbed him. I kept my hands out of his jeans, but squeezed firmly.

He nipped my lip in response and gave the sexiest growl I'd ever heard. By the time we pulled apart, my heart was racing, I was breathless and sure my lips would feel him kissing me for the next few hours. I was in heaven.

"I want to see you again, Sookie. Soon."

"Likewise. How's the day after tomorrow? I can make you dinner at my place." I suggested.

"I have to work until Friday," he frowned and furrowed his brow. "Listen, I should tell you this now because it's been known to cause problems in the past. My job is really unpredictable. If I get a call, I have to take it. I can't just tell the boss I'm busy and forget about it, even when I want to. Some days I get home at regular hours, and sometimes when I'm working a case, I sort of disappear for a few days at a time. If you're the sort that needs someone to be with her all the time, then you and me aren't going to work. I just want to warn you now before-"

I cut him off with a kiss. Just when I thought he couldn't be more perfect. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure if anyone could persuade me to change my ways about the amount of quality time I spent with my boyfriend, it would be Eric, but I'd never been a level five clinger. I liked being able to come and go.

"Eric, I'll take quality over quantity any day of the week." I pressed my forehead to his.

"You'll tell me if it's not working for you?"

"Trust me, if Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."

He laughed quietly and kissed my nose. "I have to go before I never leave. I'll see you Friday?"

I slid down off the car and Eric opened my door for me. We kissed one more time, and then I slid into my seat. "Yes, you'll see me Friday. I'll text you my address."

"Works for me. Goodnight, Sookie," he closed my door for me after I started the car engine.

I put my window down while I waited for the air conditioning to kick in. "Goodnight, Eric."

He waved at me as I put my car in gear, then watched as I drove away.

* * *

It scared me how quickly Eric and I seemed to fall into a relationship. It wasn't complicated or awkward. It felt like there had been this space in my life all carved out for him, and he just slid right into it. I got my first taste of what he'd meant about his job having to come first when we'd been seeing each other for about three weeks. We were at his apartment and making out like teenagers on his couch after dinner.

I was just about to unzip his pants when his cell phone rang. The slew of curse words that left his mouth was unreal. I'd never heard someone say, "Son of a motherbitch cock sucking whore!" If I hadn't been just as frustrated, I would have laughed. But, there was a fire on the other side of town the fire inspector suspected was arson. A woman and her two kids had been trapped inside the house.

"Will you wait here for me?" Eric asked with lust filled eyes.

"You're lucky it's Friday night." I pulled his face to mine and kissed him.

He growled and pulled away. "It better be a homicide, or I'm going to find a way to cockblock that asshole. I swear, Andre always knows when I'm about to get lucky."

I arched an eyebrow at him. "Who said anything about you getting lucky?"

That got me tackled back on the couch and the tongue kissing of my life. His hips ground against mine and my hands automatically went to his perfect ass and squeezed.

"Wait for me. I'll be back as soon as I can," he promised with one last kiss to my forehead before going to his bedroom to get his things.

I went to the door with him so I could lock up after he left. "You play nice with the other detectives."

"Yes, ma'am," he smirked over his shoulder at me.

I waved to him from the door as he got on the elevator. I locked up and went back to the couch. I had no way of knowing how long he was going to be. I turned on the TV and found the news. There was a report already about the fire Eric was headed toward. Officials hadn't erased anything about the fire, other than the confirmation that Arlene Fowler, 34, and her two children had been killed. The reporter speculated her soon-to-be ex-husband Rene Lenier might be responsible for the blaze, but of course, there was nothing official from the fire inspector. The blaze wasn't even all the way out yet.

A few minutes I later I got a text from Eric telling me he was going to be a while, and to help myself to one of his t-shirts to sleep in if I got tired. I stayed awake as long as I could before going back to his bedroom and finding a well worn Sonic Youth t-shirt and slipping into it. I looked around and found a new toothbrush that was bright pink under his sink. Had he intended to give it to me, or did he not realize he'd bought a pink toothbrush?

Either way, I tore the package open and brushed my teeth. We'd never done the sleepover thing before. We'd only been on a handful of dates, but we talked every day. Part of me was going a little crazy, wondering why we hadn't slept together yet, but mostly, I was happy we weren't rushing into anything. I'd rushed with Quinn, and it had ended somewhat disasterously. I liked Eric. A lot. I didn't want to ruin it by rushing into a sexual relationship because my body was begging me for it. When it happened, it happened, and it would be right.

I combed out my hair and then went to stand beside his bed. It was huge. I practically had to get a running start to climb into it. I was actually kind of sorry Eric had to miss watching the whole thing.. Once I got in, it was very comfortable. I always got a little freaked out by new places, even though I knew I was perfectly safe in Eric's apartment. He lived in a nice part of town only a few blocks from the police station. He told me he often walked to work instead of driving in.

I turned on the TV in his bedroom and turned on my side. I snuggled one of the many pillows on his bed. His smell was trapped in the pillowcases and sheets. The familiarity of it calmed my nerves enough to let my mind go blank. Sleep pulled me under, and I didn't wake up until I heard Eric moving around in his walk-in closet. I heard him check his weapon, then stash it wherever he kept it. Next thing I knew, he was shirtless as he stepped out of the closet.

"Hey," I whispered at him.

He smiled at me and said, "I'm sorry I woke you."

"I'm not. How'd it go?" I bit my lip nervously.

"Homicide. We found traces of accellerant leading down the back steps toward the alley. Those kids weren't his, biologically, but he'd been raising them like they were. The boy was nine and the girl was six. He'd been beating the wife for years before..." he trailed off and shook his head. "I'm sorry. You don't want to hear all that."

I got up on my knees at the edge of the bed and reached out for him. "Hey, it's okay. It's part of your life. I get there are things you can't tell me, but if you need to talk, I'm here." I kissed his forehead.

"I just don't want you to be a part of it, you know? I don't want it to touch you."

"I see it on the news, Eric, but I understand what you mean." I rubbed the back of his neck as he let his head roll from side to side.

"I'm gonna get in the shower. I smell like smoke and decay. I'll be right back." he kissed me softly, then headed for the bathroom.

I lay back in bed for a minute before deciding there was no time like the present to finish what we'd started earlier. Besides, it would help him relax, right? So, I climbed off his gigantic bed, and tip toed to the bathroom. He was already standing under the spray with his head tilted back. I whipped off his t-shirt, and got in the shower with him.

"Hope you don't mind." I said when he opened his eyes.

"My girlfriend naked in the shower with me...annnnnd I just called you my girlfriend, didn't I?" We hadn't had that talk yet.

"Yes, Detective, I believe you did." I stepped closer to him. "Soo...how many laws am I breaking by being in the shower with you right now?"

He laughed and said, "Only two spring to mind."

"Oh?"

He nodded and pushed me against the cold tile wall. It made me squeak in surprise, but I forgot all about the tiles when his lips started moving expertly on my neck. He whispered in my ear about indecent exposure, and what a bunch of tight asses people were when it came to nudity. He made it quite clear he thought I should be naked all the time, from that point on, specifically when we were together.

"And what's the other law we're breaking?" I asked as his hand moved between my thighs. I gasped, and had a pretty good idea of what he was going to say.

"Lewd and lascivious behavior," he nibbled on my ear while his fingers moved against my slick skin.

"And the uh, penalty," I moaned when his index finger found my clit. "Is it stiff?"

He put my hand on him and said, "Very."

After that, talking time was over. It turns out I had been needlessly worried about Eric being a one hit wonder. I'd had the unfortunate experience in the past where a guy was a great kisser, but not good at much else. I worried the same was true with Eric. Not to mention, on a scale of pretty that went from one to I think my ovaries exploded, I was in danger of reproductive failure. Guys that looked like him often thought they didn't need to try because they were so good looking. Add to that, he was definitely more graciously endowed than the average guy, and I was concerned I was going to find myself pulling into self-serve. Only Eric didn't have any sexual malfunctions, and by the time we got out of the shower, my legs were shaking like there were made of jello.

My toes were tingling, for crying out loud! That had never happened to me before. We dried off and I tried to wring as much water from my hair as I could. It dawned on me then that we hadn't had the birth control talk either. So before he pulled me back to his bedroom like I knew he was dying to do, I turned and faced him.

"Are you sure about that girlfriend thing?" I asked as casually as possible.

"Is it too soon?" his hands reached for mine to take the towel from me.

"No, no, it's just..." I trailed off and bit my bottom lip.

"What?"

"I just didn't want you to say it because you thought you had to. I want you, Eric. I've wanted you since the night we met at that boring as fuck launch party, and if I would have had one more gin and tonic before I went to the bathroom, I probably would have pulled you in there with me. But, I'm glad that didn't happen, because if it had, we probably wouldn't have gotten to know each other and I really like you. I like being with you. But you don't have to put a label on me if you're not ready for it." I assured him.

"Are you done?" he asked gently, and I nodded that I was. "Here's a little something you should know about me, Sookie. I have a tendency to mean what I say. I can bullshit with the best of them. If I couldn't, I wouldn't be good at my job. But I like to leave work at work. So when I tell you that I am crazy about you, you can trust that I mean it. And if I called you my girlfriend, it's because that's the way I think of you. So I hope you're okay with that."

He was just the right blend of confident and sweet. The authority in his voice did strange things to me, and it had me nodding along. I was perfectly fine with being his girlfriend, so long as the label worked both ways.

"Works for me, as long as you're okay with being my boyfriend."

"One condition."

"Let's hear it." I smiled up at him.

"Please don't give me any pet names associated with food."

"Deal, as long as you don't call me 'babe.' My ex used to call me that like he thought it was on my birth certificate."

He held out his hand to me. "Deal."

"We're not really going to seal this with a handshake, are we?"

A wiggle of his eyebrows told me no, we wouldn't be sealing the deal that way. Thank fuck!

"Eric, wait, there's one more thing," I pushed him back gently when he leaned in to kiss me.

"What?" his eyes met mine.

"Well, it's sort of awkward, but um, birth control."

"I believe my favorite phrase goes something like, don't be a fool, wrap your tool."

I laughed at his rather unexpected response. "Good to know. I'm on the shot, and I got checked out after I broke up with my ex. I'm all clear."

"We'll do whatever you're comfortable with, Sookie. I'm clean as well. I just had a department mandated physical last month and I haven't been with anyone but you since then." Eric disclosed.

I nodded, then started toward his bedroom. He followed right behind me. His arms circled my waist and his lips grazed the side of my neck.

"Just so you know, I might need a step stool to climb into this bed if you expect me to stay over." I said over my shoulder. "My gymnast days are behind me."

He froze and asked, "You were a gymnast?"

"Only until I was seventeen and the twins became a hazard to my health." I put his hands on my breasts.

He groaned, then tackled/threw me on the bed. Any part of me he hadn't kissed while we were in the shower was shown proper attention. He taunted and teased, and when I writhed underneath him, that only further served to spurn him on. I couldn't remember ever feeling more alive than I did in those moments. It dawned on me that Eric was what had been missing from my life and I hadn't even known it until then.

His body hovered above mine, his weight supported on his strong arms. His very hard erection poked the inside of my thigh, and I cried out in frustration. Enough with the teasing already. I reached between us and grabbed a hold of him. I stroked slowly, holding his eyes with my own. His lips crashed down on mine, sucking hard on my bottom lip and changing the angle of his hips just a little. I brought my knees higher up so they were grazing his sides.

"Eric, please, I need you inside me now," I whispered against his throat and then bit his ear.

He growled, then hissed when he felt me move him to my opening. Our eyes met again in the faintly lit room. He kissed me sweetly, then pushed in. I gasped as my body stretched to accept him. He moved slowly until he was as deep inside me as he was going to get. He stilled a moment, waiting for me to make the first move. When my hips rocked, he pulled back a little and thrust in again. I was torn between wanting it hard and fast, in desperate need of release, and taking our time and letting the pleasure build.

My legs locked around him, and my hands moved, once again, to his perfect ass and pushed him into me. Our kisses were fevered, and we were both sweating already. I listened to the beautiful sound of skin slapping against skin as he pounded into me. Before it felt like he had a thousand hands. Now it felt like he had a thousand lips, roaming every inch of skin they could reach.

He rolled us over so I was straddling him. His hands cupped my breasts and I leaned into him. With his feet firmly planted on the bed, he thrust up hard and fast until I was screaming for Jesus with a orgasm so intense I thought I was going to pass out. My arms gave out on me, and I collapsed on his chest. He slowed his thrusts, but didn't stop. I giggled maniacally, a reaction I wasn't prepared for. We rolled again and he positioned my legs in a way that really was only comfortable because I had been a gymnast at one point in my life. Practicing yoga and pilates helped keep me limber.

Both legs were up in the air and he entered me again, grabbing onto my thighs to use them for leverage as he resumed his fast and hard thrusting. I looked down the length of my body and watched him slide in and out over and over until he warned he was close. He let go of my thighs and leaned in closer to me so his mouth was right by my ear.

"Are you going to come for me, Sookie?" he nipped at my skin, and I moaned in response. "I want you to come for me. It feels amazing to have my cock inside you when you come."

"Oh, fuck," I groaned when his thumb began to rub fast circles over my clit.

"Come for me, Sookie," It was an order, not a request, and I was only too happy to oblige.

My body ignited and I could feel every single cell tingling, vibrating with pleasure. I screamed his name and clawed his back. He swelled inside me, thrust a half a dozen more times, then came with a roar of his own. His body, hot and sweaty just like mine, fell on top of me. It took a few minutes before either of us could manage to say something remotely intelligent.

"Thank you," I whispered against his neck, and he laughed.

"Oh, no, lover, thank you," his lips crashed on mine again.

"I've never... that was... wow," I smoothed some of hair hair back from his forehead.

"I know," he agreed and kissed my nose and cheeks. "I forgot to say this before, but you are the sexiest woman I've ever seen."

"You're just saying that because you're still inside me," I smirked at him.

He pulled out slowly and dropped light kissed in a straight line from my chin all the way to my clit. "No, I'm not. You're beautiful, Sookie. Everywhere."

I almost asked him to marry me right then and there.

* * *

The next morning I woke up feeling sore in all the right places for all the right reasons. It was almost noon by the time I woke up. Eric was sound asleep next to me. He was flat on his stomach, his face turned toward me and his arm draped over my stomach. I lifted his arm gently and tip toed to the bathroom. There was no hope of taming my hair. I definitely needed another shower, but it could wait. I brushed my teeth and did my other business before pulling on Eric's t-shirt I'd been wearing the night before, and then got back into bed with him.

I lay on my side and watched him sleep for a while. We'd gone two more rounds before we'd finally passed out from exhaustion somewhere around dawn. I gently brushed back some of his hair. His lips twitched into a smile, and with a ninja-like quickness, he pulled me closer to him. He snuggled against my breasts and kissed my chest just underneath them.

"Morning, lover," he purred.

"Morning," I ran my fingers through his hair. "Sleep okay?"

"Like a fucking rock. You?"

"You, mister, have a very comfy bed."

"Does that mean you'll be sleeping in it often?"

"If you're a good boy." I wrapped my right leg around him.

"Careful, Sookie, you're playing with fire," he warned and shifted so I was under him again.

"Doesn't the morning wood thing go away when you're like, twenty?" I teased.

"Not when you've got an incredibly beautiful woman in bed next to you who does amazing things with her tongue and can bend in ways-" I stopped him there with a kiss. "You brushed. Cheater."

"I'll make it up to you." I pushed him onto his back and slid down the bed, disappearing under his sheet.

As much as I wanted to, deep throating a guy of Eric's size wasn't going to happen, but I seemed to do just fine all the same if his hand gripping my hair was any indication. I teased him about as well as he'd teased me the night before, taking him right to the edge over and over again until he was the one begging.

I yanked the sheet back and crawled up his body with one leg on either side of him. I leaned in to kiss him, and moaned in surprise when I felt the head of his erection tease my clit. I moved my mouth from his, kissing along the line of his jaw until I got to his ear.

"Do it, Eric. Make me come," I told him as I slid down onto him.

"Fuck, Sookie," he growled and quickly flipped me on my back.

Eric had just fallen to my left side, after another toe curling orgasm, when his phone rang on the nightstand closest to me. He groaned, but made no move to retrieve his phone.

"Want me to get that?" I offered.

"It's just Pam. It'll go to voice mail."

"Pam?"

"My partner. If we're not working, we usually end up meeting for breakfast on Saturday." Eric pulled me closer to him. "I'll call her later. I see enough of her already."

"How long have you been working together?" I snuggled against him.

"Since she transferred up from New Orleans sex crimes division, so about three years now."

My eyes widened, and I grabbed his phone off the nightstand. "Do you have a picture of her in here?"

He snorted and said, "Pam set her picture as a pair of designer shoes."

"Oh. My. God." I burst out laughing, getting me a strange look from Eric. I calmed myself down and explained. "You partner, Pam, does she have a girlfriend named Amelia?"

"How'd you know that?" Eric arched an eyebrow.

I climbed on top of him and said, "Because, Detective, Amelia and I were college roommates. She kept telling me there was this friend of Pam's she wanted to set me up with because he worked too much and needed to get a life."

Eric's eyes widened and he said, "And Pam was trying to set me up with a friend of Amelia's who always picked assholes to go out with."

I scoffed at that. Maybe it wasn't too far off the mark, but leave it to Pam to make it sound worse than it really was. My head spun for a moment, and when Pam called again, I handed Eric his phone. I kissed his chest and headed to the bathroom to give him some privacy. I was pulling ingredients out of the fridge for breakfast when I heard the shower start.

A few minutes later I was plating up scrambled eggs when Eric walked into the kitchen and wrapped his arms around me. "Pam wants us to have dinner with her and Amelia later," he kissed my head.

"I figured that might happen." I handed him a plate of eggs while toast popped up.

"Did you really date assholes?" Eric sat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen.

"Probably," I shrugged and sat on the stool next to him. "Are you a workaholic?"

"Mmmm...I don't think so, but I guess I'll let you make that determination. I have to go into the office for a little while and get some paperwork done."

"That's fine. I have to go home and get changed anyway. Oh, before I forget, I stole the spare toothbrush under your sink. I can replace it, if you want?"

"Sookie, it was bright pink. I left it there for you, hoping you might need it."

"Awww that's too bad. You'd be so adorable with a pink toothbrush. Maybe I'll get you one for my place." I teased him.

After we finished eating, I went back to the bedroom to put on my shorts and a bra, since there was no way I could go without one. I told Eric I was holding his t-shirt hostage. He didn't seem to mind. I slipped on my flip-flops and grabbed my purse. We walked out of the apartment together, and I offered to drive him over to the station. Eric got in the passenger's seat next to me, and directed me where to go.

"Hey, so, how about I spend the night at your place this time?" Eric suggested when we stopped in front of the police department.

"Sure. My bed is smaller, but-"

"That just means we'll have to sleep closer together. Not at problem for me."

"Me either," I smiled at him.

He kissed the back of my hand and said, "Well, I guess I'll see you later, then."

"Yes, you definitely will." I leaned over and kissed him.

He opened his door and started to get out, but then turned toward me. "Oh, and Sookie?"

"Yes, Eric?"

"Wear the red shoes again," his eyebrows wiggled.

Fuck me shoes indeed.

* * *

Okay, so the other chapters aren't going to be this long. At least, I don't think they will be. Hell, I'm not even sure how many chapters it's going to go. I'm shooting for ten or less. We'll see what the muses have to say about it.

Annnnnnnnnd if you didn't get enough of a fluff fix here, check out **scribeninja's** o/s I.T. Girl that she's posting right now. If you don't subscribe to her, you can find her story listed in my favorites. It's a juicy little shot of fluff I think you'll love. And if you're a tumblr whore, you'll especially appreciate this.

Thanks for reading!


	2. Wasted Time

For all my angst babies out there, let me just say that the angst in this story will come from sources outside of Eric and Sookie's relationship. I know how touchy people can get about that. It should also be noted that while **scribeninja** did me a solid by prereading this for me, she didn't beta. Therefore, all the nasty little errors you find here are my own personal failure. That said, I hope you enjoy Detective!Eric's POV.

* * *

Chapter 2: Wasted Time

**EPOV**

Sookie came along at the exact right moment. It was completely unexpected. I'd taken that shift for Alexei on a total whim, and just to avoid sitting home alone in my apartment. I'd done the bar thing in the past. After being called to bar after bar to pick up drunks, I knew what sort of girls were hanging out there. I realize it's not fair to stereotype, but I wasn't interested in empty one night stands. The time for that was over. If I was going to get in a relationship, it was going to be the real thing.

I also knew the girl I got together with was going to have to be extremely patient and not super dependent on having me around. Sookie seemed okay with the idea of having to sacrifice time with me because of my job, but things between us were still new. I could only hope she was just as okay with it six months down the road. Even before our first date was over, I could already see a future with her that went beyond the next morning, which was something that had never happened to me.

I knew she was special when I didn't feel the need to jump into bed with her. Don't get me wrong, I thought she was sexy as hell, and if she had made it clear she wanted sex I would have been beyond happy to give her what she wanted, but we were building something bigger than that. Just hanging out with her was fun, which was also somewhat of a new thing. I was used to having women around me, but not like how it was with Sookie. She was easy to talk to, funny and confident. She was modest and had values she stuck to.

Being with her was easy, and it dawned on me quickly just how empty my life felt when she wasn't around. Of course, I had my work to keep me busy. I tried not to think of all the time I'd wasted after Pam had insisted I meet her friend. She'd never given me Sookie's name, or much of a description to go on, so it came as a complete surprise to me when Sookie figured out our friends had tried to set us up in the past.

No offense to Amelia, or anything, but I knew the kinds of women Pam was interested in. I figured whatever it was she was trying to sell, I'd be better off not buying. After working together for three years, we'd gotten to know each other rather well. When she'd first started out in homicide, it wasn't too big of a switch from sex crimes, since there are plenty of homicides that stem from a crime motivated in a sexual nature. She'd said she'd been working that division for too long as it was.

She never said it out loud, but I suspect working with victimized children got to her more than she was willing to let on. She wanted people to see her as a hard ass, and a woman sympathizing with children was a one way ticket to nowhere in what was still, sadly, a 'boys club' profession in a lot of ways. It was better than it had been ten years before, but there was still enough of the old school influence around to make her feel like she had to work ten times harder than her male counterparts.

When we first started working together, I'd actually gotten condolences from some of the senior male officers. Pam was understandably guarded, at first, but lightened up when she realized our captain, Stan Davis, didn't give a flying fuck about a cop's gender, so long as they did their job and did it by the book. The funny thing was, considering my size, Pam was the more intimidating one of the two of us.

It was no surprise to me that Stan was in the office. He was hunched over his desk, glasses sliding slowly down his nose. Stan's office was what most of us referred to as "the Bat Cave," since it was almost always dark in there and there were no windows. He glanced up when I walked in, but didn't say anything. I went straight to my desk and started up my computer. I had paperwork to file on the fire from the night before. The husband, Rene Lenier, was suspiciously missing from the area, so until we found him, there wasn't a whole lot we could do.

We'd canvassed the neighbors the night before, and asked about the relationship between Arlene and her husband. The neighbors all pretty much said the same things. Arlene was a battered wife who got fed up with her husband's abuse. After numerous trips to the hospital, a miscarriage as a result of one of the beatings, was what woke her up. She threw Rene out, and filed for divorce and an order of protection. The obvious assumption to make was that Rene had set the fire as his way of letting Arlene know who was in control, but until we found him, we had no evidence to support he was involved. No one had seen him in the area, and he hadn't violated the restraining order.

I got my paperwork filed on that case, and did a little follow up on some lab results that had come in for a few others. There was a lot to keep track of, but it made life interesting. No two cases were exactly alike. Each victim told a different story, and while I don't know if I would call it 'fun' to figure out the events that lead to each death, it was certainly intriguing to me.

"Northman!" Stan barked from the Bat Cave.

I pushed back from my desk and headed into Stan's office. He motioned for me to close the door and take a seat. The walls were painted a dreary shade of greenish/gray. His desk was definitely past its prime.

"What's up, Stan?" I asked as I took a seat in front of him.

"The Brass is itching for an update on the Pickens murder. Got any new info on that for me so I can get them out of my ass?" Stan sat back in his seat.

"The last information we got was a lead on a guy with some freaky ass, fully body skeleton tattoo. Pam and I have done as much digging as we can on this guy, but if he's real, he's a ghost. No one seems to know who he is."

"Fuck." Stan muttered and dropped his head. "And this arson thing? What'd you get on the husband?"

I went over the particulars of the case with him and relayed all the information Pam and I had been able to gather the night before. We were going to be looking through Arlene's medical records and talking to her family and friends to see what else we could get. There was pressure to solve the case fast since there were two children involved. The press would be all over us until we were able to make an arrest. No one liked it when children were murdered. Whomever was responsible for the fire, I sincerely hoped they got a one way ticket to Angola Correctional Facility, because prisoners tended to look down on kiddie murderers.

By the time I left the office, it was a little after four. I literally jogged home, then got in the shower and ready for dinner with Sookie, Pam and Amelia. It was muggy outside, which wasn't much of a surprise. I threw on a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and a pair of chucks before heading out. I made a quick stop at the grocery store to get flowers for Sookie, since I'd never done that before, and what woman doesn't want flowers?

Forty minutes later, I was pulling into the gravel parking area at the back of her house. The house looked like any other built at the same time back in the 1940's. It was a small place, but more than enough space for Sookie. The house was painted a medium gray color with black and white trim and a red door. They weren't colors she would have chosen for the house, but there wasn't much she could do about it since she didn't own the place. It seemed her landlord, and boss, had gotten a bit confused about what good design was.

Sookie decorated the interior as best she could with the black appliances, counters and accents everywhere. The house looked like it was hers, from the inside. I went to the back door and knocked before walking in. I figured out relatively quickly that I could tell a lot about Sookie by the type of music she was listening to. She had rather eclectic tastes, but preferred pop music most of the time. At the moment, she was listening to an old Madonna album.

I left the flowers on the kitchen counter and headed toward her bedroom. I heard the hair dryer going in the master bathroom, and stretched out on her bed to wait for her, rather than scaring her half to death by sneaking up on her. When the dryer shut off, I called out to her so she'd know I was there.

"Sookie?"

The bathroom door opened and she appeared in front of me in black lace bra with matching boy shorts. "There you are. I was starting to wonder about you," she walked over to the bed to kiss me hello, and ended up on top of me.

"What time are we meeting Pam again?" I smirked up at her.

"Soon," she smiled down at me, and slapped at my hands when they moved from her ass up her back to the clasp on her bra. "Nope, not enough time for that, mister."

"Please," I pouted.

She rolled her eyes and said, "Nope, sorry. I have to go curl my hair."

"Your hair looks beautiful just the way it is. In fact, I think it would look really sexy if I messed it up a little." I pressed my hips up against hers, and she moaned quietly.

"You're evil," she rocked her hips against me.

We had just rolled over so I was on top of her, when my cell buzzed in my pocket. Sookie squirmed underneath me at the vibrations against her inner thigh. I hated having to stop to look at the phone, but I didn't have a whole lot of choice in the matter. Of course, it was Pam calling. Again.

"Pam if this isn't about work, I'm hanging up." I warned her when I answered.

"I saw your car parked outside Sookie's. What'cha doing?" The smirk in Pam's voice was audible.

"Hanging up now." I growled, and tossed my phone to the side.

"You know, I hate to ruin what I'm sure would be really amazing sex, but I really have to finish getting ready." Sookie pouted up at me.

I sighed my defeat and pushed myself up onto my knees to give her room to move. Sookie got up on her knees as well, wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me sweetly. When she pulled back, her eyes met mine and she smiled.

"I'm going to wear the red shoes," she said before bouncing off her bed.

I playfully slapped her ass and then decided it was best if I left the bedroom while she finished getting ready. I went to the kitchen to get a drink, and ended up in the living room, flipping through her channels until I found ESPN. Sookie emerged from her bedroom a short time later with her hair curled in big waves, dressed in a pair of tiny black shorts and a sparkly red tank top that matched her shoes.

"Fuck," I groaned.

"What?" she turned slowly. "Something wrong with what I'm wearing?"

"Only that I can't rip it off you right now." I held a hand out to her and she ended up straddling my lap.

"Later," she promised after kissing me. "We have to get going anyway."

Reluctantly, I got up off the couch and followed her toward the back door. She stopped and smiled at me when she noticed the flowers in the kitchen.

"Did you bring those?"

"Unless your counter normally sprouts flowers." I smiled at her.

"They're beautiful, thank you," she stretched up on her toes to kiss me. "Will you get me a vase from the top shelf in that cabinet?"

I went to the cabinet she pointed to while she unwrapped the flowers from their cellophane and rubber band bindings. I handed over the vase to her and she got her flowers arranged how she wanted them. She disappeared from the kitchen and put the flowers in the dining room. I grabbed her purse off the kitchen counter and held it out to her as she walked toward me.

"So, _boyfriend_, when do I get to drive this baby?" Sookie asked as she got into the passenger's seat of my car.

I laughed, closed her door and went around to the driver's side. "When 'boyfriend' becomes 'husband.'"

She arched an eyebrow at me. "You're serious about this being your baby, aren't you?"

"I joke about a lot of things, but not about this car." I said as I backed out of her driveway.

The drive to Don's Dock took about twenty minutes. Pam's car was already there when we arrived. We walked hand in hand to the back of the restaurant where Pam and Amelia had already claimed a table for the four of us. Amelia waved in an animated fashion, while Pam mostly smirked at us. Sookie let go of my hand to give Amelia a hug and wave at Pam.

"It's like Barbie and Ken come to life," Pam deadpanned.

I rolled my eyes and pulled out Sookie's chair for her. The waitress came by and we both ordered iced teas. When our tea came, we put in orders for appetizers. Pam made a joke about clam strips that nearly had tea coming out of Sookie's nose. I'll tell you, Pam was batting a thousand. If Sookie hadn't already been familiar with Pam's sense of humor, I would have been mortified.

"So, come on, tell me all about how you guys met." Amelia said with excitement after our dinner orders had been placed.

"Uh, well, it was a little over three weeks ago. I went on that blind date my Gran set me up with," Sookie began, and was almost immediately cut off by Amelia.

"Ugh, Bill Compton, right?" Amelia didn't wait for Sookie to confirm that bit of information. "You know I saw him last week at Albertson's with some woman about his height with auburn hair and dressed like she raided Carol Brady's closet. You definitely traded up." Amelia winked at me.

Sookie snorted through her nose and said, "Yeah, well, that woman was probably his ex, Judith. If they were able to work things out, I'm happy for 'em. The only good thing that came out of that date is sitting to my left."

Amelia and Pam made mocked swooning noises at us before Pam stuck her finger down her throat. I wanted to kick her under the table. Sookie told the rest of the story about how we met and subsequently started dating. Pam had her interrogation face on, which I thought was comical, considering Sookie wasn't a stranger. Granted, she hadn't known Sookie as long as she'd known me, but there was no need for that face.

"Does it bother you that Eric's a cop?" Pam asked when there was a lull in the conversation.

"Pam!" I glared at her.

"It's okay, Eric," Sookie squeezed my hand under the table. "I think everyone at this table can agree there are definitely times when it's not exactly a convenient profession to be in." No argument there. I was still pissed about the night before, regardless of how well it ended. "But I know Eric doesn't really see his job as just a job. It's important to him, and I knew from the beginning just how important it is. Do I worry? Of course I do. You guys carry guns for a living and track down dangerous people who would probably just as soon kill you as surrender, but I know you have each other's backs, and you're as safe as you can be. Besides, cop talk is sexy."

That final sentence had Pam choking on her tea, which was probably the funniest thing I'd seen in a long time. Pam didn't think so, of course, especially since she ended up spilling tea on whatever designer dress she was wearing. Pam was left to clean herself up since the rest of us were laughing uncontrollably.

From that point on, dinner went well. Pam and I told a few funnier stories about some of the things that happened on the job. Most of mine were patrol related. We didn't talk about on-going investigations since it was against the rules, and neither of us really wanted to mix our private life with work too much. Keeping the two separate could be troubling sometimes. I was only in homicide for about two months when I figured out why most of the guys went over to a bar called Outlaws that was about a block away from the station.

It gave us a chance to talk about the shit swimming in our heads, and sometimes helped us unjam a case that seemed impossible to solve. Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes on things worked as well as a good shot of whiskey. I didn't go there all that often myself. I preferred to spend time running on a treadmill at the gym or swimming laps. Soaking my liver and breathing secondhand smoke wasn't going to do me any favors in the long run, and the endorphins from exercising cleared my mind much better anyway.

Pam and Amelia didn't stick around for too long after we were finished eating. Sookie wanted to stay and dance for a bit which was fine with me. Pam was afraid of getting tossed off the floating dance floor, not that I could blame her for it. Although there was a part of me that was very disappointed I wouldn't be seeing her sputtering as she swam to shore to get her gun. She carried hers even when she was off duty, which I wasn't sure was a great idea for someone like Pam, but she had yet to pull her weapon on someone so I couldn't complain.

"That went well," Sookie said once we were wrapped up in each other on the dance floor.

"Pam could have been better behaved." I rubbed Sookie's back as we swayed.

"Oh, come on, you know Pam. She just says the things she does because she likes to see you react. I also happen to have it on very good authority she cares very deeply for you." Sookie's fingers tickled the back of my neck. "She doesn't let it show too often, but we both know she has a heart in there."

"I know," I agreed and pulled her a little closer to me. "And I also know you read people pretty well."

"Comes from years of anticipating other people's needs."

"Waitressing, you mean?"

"Yep. Helps the tips big time when you bring people things before they have to flag you down and ask for it."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but do you ever think you could be doing more with your life?"

"You mean more than serving beer and fried pickles to a bunch of drunk rednecks who think my ass is a stress release ball?" she smirked up at me.

"Yes, and the next time some asshole gropes you-"

"Don't worry, Detective, I can handle those fools. I've got years of experience putting mouthy, and handsy, jerks in their place. Besides, even if my brother isn't very responsible in a lot of ways, he doesn't tolerate me being molested or disrespected very well. To answer your question, yes, of course I think about quitting and moving on. I just don't know what I'd do. All I've ever done is waitress, with the exception of the summer internship I had before my senior year of college."

"And what's your degree in again?"

"Human resources. Ironic, huh? My ideal job is helping other people get settled in their own jobs."

"So what's holding you back from going after that?"

"Fear," she said immediately, and made no apologies for it. "I know it's slightly ridiculous. I mean, I'm twenty-seven years old. I should be able to take this next step and stop dragging my feet, but it's just scary. I mean, what if I fail? What if I totally screw up what little bit of a good thing I have going in my life, and everything just turns to shit? Just because I have a degree in something doesn't mean I'm going to be any good at it. It just means I spent a butt load of money for a piece of paper. It doesn't guarantee I made a right choice or that I shouldn't stay right where I am. I'm good at what I do. I like what I do."

"Are you happy with what you do?"

She thought for a moment and said, "Mostly."

"Mostly?"

"Well, okay, so, it gets old, coming home late at night with sore feet and an aching back. It'd be nice not to smell like smoke, booze and grease. On the other side, I like the social aspect of it. I'm so used to being on my feet all the time, you know? I don't know if I could sit still for eight hours a day. I can barely sit through a movie without getting anxious." She sounded a little defensive at that point.

"Whoa, hey, Sookie, I'm not judging you. I was just curious."

"Well, let me ask you something. Does it bother you that I'm a waitress?"

"What? No! Sookie, look, I only brought it up because you're an amazing person. You're smart and you're funny, and..."

"I could be doing more with my life."

I sighed and said, "I didn't mean for that to sound like I'm demeaning what you're doing now. Listen to me," I tilted her chin up to look at me. "If you're happy with what you're doing, then you should do it. But if you're sticking to it because you're afraid to go after what you really want, then I think that's a problem."

"Easy for you to say, Eric, you love what you do." Sookie pouted.

"That's true, I do, but I was scared when I first started out and I had to carry a loaded weapon."

Sookie fought a smile. "I don't like the idea of disappointing anyone."

"So rather than finding out that maybe it's not the right fit for you, you're just going to stay where you are and disappoint yourself? I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but your logic seems a little silly to me." I suggested.

She sighed and leaned against me, which was a good sign. I didn't want to overstep my bounds with her. I really wasn't trying to judge her. I meant what I said about her being happy. If she was fine with where she was, that was fine with me. I was in no position to tell her what to do with her life. I just didn't want her thinking she was stuck if she wasn't happy.

We stayed there and danced until her feet started bothering her. By the time we left the restaurant, it was after ten. She slipped her shoes off before we left the dance floor and cashed in her rain check for a piggyback ride to the car. She walked barefoot from the car to her back door when we got to her house.

"So, are you staying over?" she asked once she had the door open.

"As a matter of fact," I reached into my pocket and pulled out the other item I'd bought at the grocery store earlier. "I thought maybe I would."

"A pink toothbrush?" she burst out laughing, then pulled me inside.

* * *

So after I finished posting the first chapter of this, I was up until almost 5 AM writing up the outline and it looks like we're going to surpass the 10 chapter limit (but I'm hoping to stay under 20). This is my first "murder mystery" type story, so connecting all the dots is kind of fun. All my years of watching Law & Order are finally paying off! And here I thought I was procrastinating. Turns out I was doing research. WIN! Thanks for reading!


	3. Boondocks

Chapter 3: Boondocks

**SPOV**

A month later, Eric and I were getting back from his first vacation since being promoted to Detective. We'd spent a week down at Lake Amistad. We spent the week on a houseboat just lazing about and soaking up the sun. We had a great time together, and it showed me that living together wouldn't be difficult. I had been a bit nervous about it at first. A whole week, uninterrupted, was a lot of time to spend together.

Turns out I was worried for nothing, and when I got home, I missed him like crazy the first night we were apart. I was so tempted to get in my car and drive over to his place in the middle of the night. Instead, I laid there in bed, staring up at my ceiling fan. I could still feel the phantom motion of rocking on the water. It was a good thing I didn't get motion sickness. I finally fell asleep some time after midnight. I woke up in the middle of the night, thirsty as hell, and was disappointed when I reached my arm out, only to find I was alone.

I was just settling back into bed when I heard the unmistakable roar of Eric's car approaching. I jumped out of bed and met him at the back door. Without a word, he scooped me up and carried me back to my room. All we did was sleep, but that was when I knew I was in love with him. I slept like a rock after that. He had to leave a few hours later for work, but not before telling me he couldn't sleep without me.

I almost told him I loved him, but decided to wait on it. There was a part of me that worried maybe it was too soon, and maybe I should think about it some more. Eric left my house, just barely, in a suit that made me want to jump him. It was slate blue, just a little darker than his eyes. He had court that afternoon. It was unfair how sexy he looked and had to leave.

I had to get back to work myself. I'd been off for the last eight days. I'd given some serious thought to the things Eric had said the night we met Pam and Amelia for dinner. Before we left for Lake Amistad, I'd sent out a couple of resumes for some open positions in Ruston, Monroe and Shreveport. I figured there was no harm in looking around. Really, I knew I couldn't be a waitress forever. If I stayed at Merlotte's it would be a waste of my education, and there was no way I was going to be on the hook for the thousands of dollars I was just to spend my life asking people if they wanted fries, rings or pickles with their meal.

I kissed Eric goodbye at the back door and promised to meet him at his apartment later that night after work. I got in the shower and then ready for work. I'd told Gran I would stop by her place before going in for the lunch shift, so I had to get moving. I poured myself a cup of extra strong coffee and grabbed the souvenirs I'd picked up for Gran.

When I got to her house a few minutes later she was out in the yard, pulling leaves and pruning her roses. She beamed when she saw me walking toward her. I helped her up off the ground, and immediately found myself wrapped in one of her big bear hugs.

"My goodness, child, you're a twig! Didn't that man of yours feed you while you were out on that lake?" Gran looked me up and down.

"Too well. I think I went up a pant size, Gran."

"Fiddlesticks. Maybe it's your tan? Oh, no, I think it's that smile. I don't think I've ever seen you smile like that before." Gran wrapped an arm around my shoulders as she led me up the back steps.

"Well, Eric has definitely given me a lot to smile about," I confirmed for her.

"Sookie! Am I going to be a Great Granny?" Gran looked like she was about to burst from excitement.

"Sorry to disappoint, Gran, but no."

"What are you waiting for, girl? It's plain as day you love him. Which reminds me, why haven't you brought him around for supper yet? I know he has a busy schedule, but I'd like to meet him before you go into labor."

"And you will, Gran, I promise. I'll see him later tonight and I'll find out when he's not working. He's in court today, otherwise I'd call him now." I added that last bit because I knew how her mind worked.

"That's fine, dear. Have you eaten yet?"

"Not yet. I was going to grab something on my way to Merlotte's."

"Don't be silly. You sit down and tell me about your trip while I make you some breakfast." Gran insisted.

I told her almost everything about the trip, since there was plenty she wouldn't want to hear, and I would die of embarrassment to tell her, anyway. While I ate my scrambled eggs and sausage, she told me about her most recent DGD meeting and Maxine Fortenberry's latest attempt to find Hoyt a "nice girl" at church. I sometimes wondered if Maxine thought a house of worship was nothing more than a holding pen for potential daughters-in-law.

"So I guess she hasn't accepted Hoyt's been dating Holly yet, huh?" I asked after finishing my last bite of toast.

Gran shook her head and said, "She's from the old school, I suppose. Don't you go blabbing this, but Maxine herself was already pregnant when she married Hank."

"Get outta here." My jaw about hit the floor. "Does Hoyt know about this?"

"Ha! Maxine would just as soon give up her blue ribbon Apple Walnut Crisp recipe as she would tell Hoyt about that."

"Gran, is Hoyt Hank's son?"

Gran narrowed her eyes at me and said, "I think I've said enough on all this. My point is, Maxine has some very unreasonable expectations, considering how wild she once was."

Maxine Fortenberry was wild once? The thought gave me shivers, and made me say a few silent prayers for any man that might have gotten mixed up with her. I didn't know Hank Fortenberry too well before he passed on. He was shot by a burglar when Hoyt was twelve, which meant I was nine when it happened.

"Do you want some help cleaning up before I go, Gran?" I offered as I finished off the last of my lemonade.

"No, no, honey, I'm fine. If you have to get on to work, you should go."

"I have a few more minutes."

We talked a bit more, mostly about Jason's new girlfriend, Amy. Gran said Amy was smart, sweet and the sort of girl Jason should settle down with. I, of course, told Gran not to get her hopes up and to expect Amy to come to her senses. Gran was always on me to be a little nicer to Jason, but it was hard to find good things to say about him sometimes. While I preferred quality over quantity, Jason was the exact opposite.

Before I left I changed a few light bulbs for Gran, since I didn't want her climbing up on her step ladder if she didn't have to. She was relatively healthy and spry for her seventy-six years, but I didn't want her taking any chances. A broken hip would really put her out of commission, and there was nothing Gran hated more than feeling like a burden to others. I'd inherited her inability to ask for help when I needed it, as well as her stubborn streak. Although, Gran refused to admit she was stubborn. She claimed it was a trait all southern women possessed, it was just more dormant in some than it was in others.

I kissed her cheek before I headed off to Merlotte's. Lafayette was already in the kitchen, working on the day's special. Dawn was filling ketchups at the bar and Sam appeared to be doing inventory. Everyone stopped when I walked in, and they all stared at me like they hadn't seen me in years.

"It's just me. Go on about your business," I waved them off and headed back toward Sam's office to put up my purse and clock myself in.

Of course, I had to tell my vacation story about a hundred times before my shift ended later that afternoon. Eric sent me a text message around three to let me know he was out of court, but the witness he'd been waiting for in the Fowler case had finally been found, so he had some questioning to do. He was hoping the witness would be cooperative, but there were no guarantees.

Before I knew it, Holly was coming in to relieve me. She seemed to be glowing, and it took me a minute to realize why. There was a pretty piece of jewelry sitting on her left ring finger. Glory be, Hoyt proposed to her! Ooh, if Maxine didn't know about it yet, she was really going to blow her stack when she found out.

"Heya, Sookie, welcome back! How was your trip?" Holly asked once she was clocked in and tying on her apron.

"I'll tell ya all about it, but first, I want to know about this," I grabbed her hand and held it up to take a closer look at her ring.

"Oh, that," she blushed. "Hoyt and I had ourselves a bit of a scare the week before last, and it got us thinking about the future. I've always wanted to have another baby, and Hoyt's always wanted kids of his own. We just figured it was time to take the next step."

"That's great, Holly, I'm happy for y'all." I released her hand and gave her a quick hug.

Holly and I weren't real close, but we'd known each other since she moved to town about six years ago and started working at Merlotte's. Back then I was only working at the bar part-time since I was in school, but she was thankful for it, since she preferred to be off on weekends so she could spend time with her son. Not that it mattered, since Sam was perfectly content to let her bring her son along for day shifts on the weekends. He'd sit and play computer games in Sam's office with waitresses and Lafayette looking in on him every few minutes to make sure he wasn't getting into any trouble.

I clocked myself out and found Sam in his office. He was going over the books when I went in to grab my purse from my cubbie hole. He stopped what he was doing to give me a copy of the schedule for the next month. Nothing was set in stone with Sam, and for the most part, we worked the same schedule week after week. If us girls needed to trade days off, he didn't care as long as it was written on the master schedule and initialed by both parties.

"Sookie, before you go, there's something I need to talk to you about." Sam sighed and rubbed his face.

"Sure, Sam, what is it?"

"Close the door," he pointed behind me. That wasn't a good sign. "Listen, I uh, I heard a rumor that you're looking for another job."

"Where'd you hear that?"

"Jason was in here last week and-"

Gran must have told him. Damn. "Sam, listen-"

"No, no, hang on and let me finish. Sook, I'm not upset with you. I mean, I don't want to lose you, but you should be doing something else. What was the point of going to college if you were just going to hang out here? You're the best waitress I have, but it's obvious to me you're ready to do bigger and better things with your life. You're moving on."

I got the feeling he wasn't just talking about my career path. I was pretty sure he was referencing Eric as well. The first time Eric had come to visit me at the bar, Sam had spent the night in his office, pouting in a silent protest. I felt bad for Sam. He was a nice guy and was going to make a great husband and father, he just wasn't for me. And a guy like Eric, well, he could make Brad Pitt look bad.

"Sam, I'm just putting feelers out there. I don't know what I'm doing, but I promise if anything changes you'll be the first to know." I meant it, too. I wouldn't just leave him without any notice.

"I appreciate that, Sookie."

I smiled and said, "Well, I have to get going. I have a few errands to run and then I have to get on over to Shreveport. I'll see you tomorrow night."

"Yes, you will. Glad you're back."

"Me, too, Sam." I gave him a smile, then headed out through the employee door instead of going through the dining room again.

After a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up the essentials, I ran home to shower and change clothes. I'd started to leave a few things over at Eric's house, since it was easier than having to skip out early. I kept a uniform at his place, along with a nightgown or two. I had a razor in his shower and deodorant in the bathroom cabinet. In return, he had a few things chilling in my closet as well. So, okay, a _few_ of the t-shirts were ones I'd sorta swiped because I needed something to wear home and had been lax in returning to him.

But he didn't ask for them back, nor did he complain when I'd come to bed in them. Then again, they usually ended up on the floor. I found out Eric was a naked sleeper, even when he slept alone. Modesty prevented me from doing that intentionally. Hell, there were times when I'd put on one of his t-shirts after we were done having sex. It just felt kind of strange to be naked sometimes. I know it sounds weird. I didn't understand it well enough to explain it to Eric, and he laughed along with me when I told him I knew it was a weird hang up of mine.

Eric had some big dinner planned for us at his place. I had been delighted to learn he could not only cook, but cook very well. His step-father was a chef, and had taught him how to do things I couldn't even pronounce. We had yet to do the meeting of the parents, but I was okay with that. I'd met Alexei the week before we left for Lake Amistad. He looked nothing like Eric. I never would have guessed they were brothers if Eric wouldn't have told me.

Alexei was just barely taller than me, and not nearly as muscular as his big brother. The only physical trait they seemed to share were their blue eyes. Their personalities, however, had some similar qualities. They were both fiercely loyal and had a good sense of humor. Alexei was every bit as smart as Eric. He didn't talk quite as much, but he made it count when he did speak. I wouldn't say he was shy, though, just more comfortable being an observer. He was clearly well suited for the profession he was pursuing.

I arrived at Eric's just after seven. He buzzed me up to his apartment, and left his apartment door open for me. I set my bag down on the couch, and then went to find him in the kitchen. He had a whole bunch of pots working on the stove, and the place was filled with the most delicious smell. Eric's back was to me when I found him, stirring whatever was in one of his pots.

"Hey," I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my face to his back.

"Hi," he smiled over his shoulder at me. "Hungry?"

"Starved. What'cha making?" I looked around him.

"Stuffed chicken Parmesan."

"Ugh, I'm going to gain a thousand pounds if I keep dating you."

Eric chuckled and said, "Then it's a good thing I know of a great calorie burning activity."

"Oh yeah? Does it involve getting hot and sweaty, because I _just_ showered for the second time today."

"When done right, yes, and you know I never do anything half way." His eyebrows did their little wiggle that always made me laugh.

"No, you certainly don't," I stretched up and kissed him softly. "Need any help?"

"You can grab some plates and silverware if you want. Everything is just about ready."

"My hero." I batted my eyelashes, and then went to set the table.

I liked Eric's apartment. It was masculine without looking like a tragic bachelor pad. The living room furniture was all wrought iron and chocolate brown microsuede. The floors were covered in plush, beige carpet. A big screen plasma TV was mounted on one wall, and he had a lot of bookshelves. Eric read a lot. He'd been reading a lot of biographies lately, but he also had a very healthy collection of crime novels. He loved John Grisham (surprise, surprise), and had recently been quoting lines from _The Departed_. I was starting to think my boyfriend had a bit of a man crush on Martin Scorcese. It was cute, though.

Eric brought the food out from the kitchen, and I was immediately drooling. While he served up plates for each of us, he told me how he'd prepared the chicken. He had me at the cheese filling for the chicken breasts, but he kept on talking. I already knew it would taste phenomenal based on the aromas coming from the kitchen, and I wasn't disappointed. It was amazing.

I moaned with just about every bite I took, which I knew got Eric's motor running. I'd discovered that while we were on the houseboat. I'd never paid much attention to the noises I made while eating, but once he pointed them out to me, I was slightly embarrassed about it. I'd never given much thought to how sensual eating could be, but I became hyper aware of it thanks to him.

Every moan, lick of my fingers or blissful roll of my eyes made it that much harder for him not to pounce on me right there in the dining room. It was sweet to see how turned on he got just by watching me eat. It was something I'd never experienced before, that's for sure.

"Eric, this is amazing," I said after about four bites of one of the best meals I'd ever had.

"I'll be sure to tell Godric you think so. It's his recipe."

"Well, the man is a master at his craft. He should open his own restaurant."

"They're thinking about it. Mom's been hesitant to do it since the economy has been so rocky the last few years."

"Mmm," I moaned with my next bite, and watched Eric's eyes glaze over again with lust. "The food speaks for itself."

"He also sent over some cannolis."

"Cannolis?"

Eric grinned and said, "It's an Italian deep fried pastry shell with mascarpone cheese inside and dipped in crushed pistachios."

"Sounds dangerously delicious. Seriously, my ass is going to be huge." I laughed.

"I promise, lover," he leaned closer to me and wiped some sauce off my chin with his finger. "I won't let that happen."

I smiled at him, then kept eating. By the time we were both stuffed, neither of us wanted to move, much less clean up, but since he'd gone to all the trouble of making me dinner I thought it was the least I could do. So while he packed up the leftovers, I got started on the dishes. We moved around easily, having had a week's practice on the houseboat under our belts.

It scared me sometimes how seamlessly we fit together. There was no awkward dancing around each other, and I never felt like I had to put up a facade around him. I could just be myself, and that was a pretty powerful feeling. While I finished up the dishes, he went to the living room to get a movie set up for us. I don't know why he even bothered, since I figured we'd either be asleep or making out in a matter of minutes.

I found Eric stretched out on his giant couch with _Men in Black_ ready to go in the DVD player. I plunked down in the corner of the couch and pulled a blanket down on top of me. Eric kept the air conditioning cranked up most of the time, which meant I was usually cold. Sometimes I thought he did it on purpose because I was more agreeable to snuggling with him. Once I was settled, Eric moved closer to me on the couch and turned on his side so he could rest his head on my stomach. He pushed play on the remote, and I let my fingers comb gently through his hair.

The quiet was nice, and Will Smith hadn't even formally joined the men in black by the time Eric and I were both passed out. Of course, it was his cell phone that woke me. He was out cold, which was no surprise. He hadn't slept at all before he got to my house the night before. I reached over him and grabbed his phone off the coffee table. It was his boss.

"Eric, sweetie, wake up," I shook him gently. "Eric, it's your boss."

He grunted and blindly reached for his phone. I pushed the answer button for him and held it to his ear. He hadn't even opened his eyes yet. I could hear his boss talking, but I couldn't make out what he was saying. Eric mostly grunted, until he said his goodbye.

"I have to go." Eric grumbled and reluctantly pushed himself up.

"What's wrong?"

"A body was found out in the woods," he sighed and then stretched like a cat, revealing those nicely defined abs of his.

"Sounds like fun." I leaned back against the couch.

"Not really. Apparently, it's been there a while."

I squished up my face and shook my head. "I'm so glad I don't have your job."

"So am I," he leaned over and kissed me before heading back to his bedroom to change clothes and get his things.

He came back in a pair of black pants and a fitted t-shirt. His weapon was holstered at his hip and his badge was hanging around his neck. I had yet to see him in his dress uniform, but the thought of it made me weak in the knees. I got up and followed him to the door to lock up behind him and kiss him goodbye.

"You know," he stopped and looked at me before he walked out. "I really like the idea of you being here waiting for me when I get back."

"I like it, too," I stretched up on my toes to kiss him goodbye.

"I'll call if I'm going to be gone long," he promised.

"Don't worry about it. Do what you have to do." Again, I almost told him I loved him, but it wasn't the right time to spring it on him. "Oh, and Eric?"

"Yes, lover?" he smiled as he walked backward down the hall toward the elevator.

"Wake me up before you get in the shower." I blew him a kiss, which he caught, and then closed the door.

* * *

Soooo, this is the calm before the storm, so to speak. We'll start getting into the heavier crime aspect in the next chapter or two, but I wanted a good foundation for Eric and Sookie's relationship before getting too deep into what's going to be happening later on. Thanks to **scribeninja** for pre-reading and doing a little beta work here. Thanks for reading!


	4. Anyone's Ghost

**Disclaimer:** I am not involved with law enforcement. I haven't studied it outside of Law & Order (mostly of the SVU variety- who doesn't think Stabler's hot?) or Forensic Files. I have absolutely no formal training. All of the legal jargon and cop speak you find here is based on those things and what internet research I do. Hopefully, that's good enough. This _is_ fiction, after all.

On with the show...

* * *

Chapter 4: Anyone's Ghost

**EPOV**

I hated leaving Sookie late at night like I did. I knew she was perfectly safe in my apartment, but it just seemed unfair to invite her over, only to have to leave her there alone. But, it was part of the job. I had Pam text me the address I was supposed to meet her at, since my brain was still mostly asleep when Stan called in the assignment. I knew it was a big deal when Stan was the one to call it instead of the usual desk sergeant.

I arrived at the old farmhouse that reminded me a lot of the Sookie's grandmother owned. There were all sorts of police vehicles and whatnot parked along the side of the deserted old road. Pam had been just pulling up to the scene when I called her. Finding her was pretty easy. She was the one barking out orders and standing awkwardly to keep her designer heels from sinking into the soft earth.

"Northman, about fucking time," Pam rolled her eyes when she saw me walking toward her.

"Pam, overdressed as usual," I pointed to her shoes.

"I was out to dinner when I got the call. You look like shit."

"I was sleeping when I got the call. It's a good thing Sookie was there, or I wouldn't have heard it."

"Yeah, well, you're not on vacation anymore, so get your A game, and lets get this started." Pam started walking over to where the crime scene techs were bagging, tagging and photographing evidence. "Victim is a female, age between twenty-five and thirty. No I.D. on her, but Ludwig puts the time of death somewhere around three days ago. Cause of death is unknown at the time, although there are some ligature marks around the wrists."

I stared down at the body of the dead woman. She was thin, with dark hair and closed eyes. There was a visible tattoo on her upper right arm, and she was wearing what appeared to be an expensive locket around her neck. Robbery was clearly not a motive here. I'd been staring at dead bodies in various stages of decomposition for years. I still wasn't used to it. The stink was no walk in the park either.

"Any idea how she got here?"

"Not a clue. House is registered to a Jackson Herveaux, but he's been dead for five years now. We're checking on next of kin to see if we can find out who's been maintaining the property." Pam gestured behind me.

The lawn wasn't overgrown. There were flowers planted and nicely pruned in their beds. Bushes had been trimmed recently. The house, while old, didn't seem to be completely abandoned. I was willing to bet someone used it as a weekend getaway house, or maybe as a summer home.

"What's with the playing card?" I pointed to the king of hearts in the victim's hand.

"Don't know yet, but we'll bag it."

The nearest neighbors were more than a mile away, and a quick interview with them revealed they hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary going on at the Herveaux property. They were, however, able to tell me the house had been willed to Jackson's only child, Alcide. They didn't have a number I could contact him at, but they did have his last known address in Las Vegas. He was in the Air Force, last they heard.

I took the information back to Pam so we could compare information. A suicide note was found in the victim's pocket. It was a rather standard note, blaming Alcide for her death, claiming his cheating had left her broken beyond repair and with no other choice but to end her life. It seemed like an open and shut case, just by looking at it.

Of course, I was curious about that damn playing card. If it was a straight suicide, what was with the card she was holding? I made a note of it, but decided to hold off until we'd had a chance to get in contact with Alcide and get an official ruling from the coroner, Dr. Ludwig. An autopsy would take a few days, during which time they'd run a tox screen. Since there was no obvious cause of death, I was willing to bet it was an overdose of some sort. Suicide by overdose was more common in women than men. Men were more likely to go out in a violent fashion, where is women would drift away in a painless haze.

Once all of the evidence was bagged and tagged, we headed back to the station to start on the paperwork and see if we could get an information on Alcide Herveaux. Pam got his phone number, but since it was just shy of dawn, we figured it was probably best to hold off on calling until later on in the day.

"Is it just me, Pam, or was something not right about that scene to you, too?" I leaned back in my chair, hands behind my head. I was fucking exhausted.

"The card, right?"

"It's stuck in my craw. There's a clue there. It's not just something she was holding."

"Well, I guess we'll have to wait and see what Ludwig says," Pam sighed and closed the file she had open in front of her. "I'm heading home. I have to be in court after lunch."

"Yeah, I'm scheduled to go up for cross in a little while." I rubbed my eyes and followed her out of the station.

Pam offered to drive me home since I was too tired to do it myself, but I decided to walk. It only took about ten minutes, and by the time I got up to the apartment, I just wanted to fall into bed. Sookie was passed out, face down on what had become her side of the bed. She was covered from the waist down with my comforter. She was also naked, which was something Sookie didn't do voluntarily. I didn't get why she bothered putting clothes on to get into bed, since they usually ended up on the floor anyway. Might as well save yourself the trouble.

As much as I would have loved to wake her up for a little fun in the shower, I was too tired for that. I removed my weapon and put it in its lock-box, after making sure the safety was on. I put my badge in the box as well, then pulled off my clothes. I was going to need to make a run to the cleaner's soon. I stepped out of the closet to find Sookie still passed out. I went to the bathroom and closed the door. I showered relatively quickly, even though the hot water beating on my back felt good.

I brushed my teeth, towel dried my hair until it was just barely damp and then went to the bedroom. I slid into bed beside Sookie and kissed her cheek before laying back. She moaned and reached out for me.

"You were supposed to wake me up," Sookie's eyes didn't open.

"I wanted to, but I don't think either of us are awake enough." I got closer to her and let my fingers trail up and down her back until she shivered.

She pulled the blankets up and moved even closer to me, draping her arm over my stomach. "No, I guess not. Later, though. Definitely before work."

I laughed quietly and said, "Yes, dear."

I kissed the top of her head and concentrated on the warmth of her breath as it moved over my ribs. I could still feel the rocking of the boat we'd lived on for a week. I wondered how much longer that was going to last. It was a relaxing sensation, but having Sookie laying there next to me was what really put me at ease.

"Sweet dreams, baby," she muttered in a barely intelligible way before slipping back under herself.

I wrapped an arm around her, holding onto her for dear life, like I thought by drifting off to sleep, I might drift away from her. I'd planned on giving her a key to my apartment after dinner, but we were both so exhausted we fell asleep instead. There was something comforting about her presence. I always seemed to feel immediately more relaxed when she was near me, and that was even before I really got to know her.

I let my eyes drift closed and as soon as I did, I saw the face of the dead woman in my mind. I didn't want to think about it. My gut was nagging at me that we were missing something, that it wasn't the suicide it appeared to be. I shifted on the bed and breathed in the sweet smell of Sookie's hair. Her lips grazed my chest with every breath I took.

Unfortunately, my method of comforting myself backfired when I sank into a dream in which it was Sookie's body that was found in the woods. Her hair was snarled and tangled with leaves and twigs in it. There were little bite marks all over her body from where scavengers had picked at her. Her lips were cold and blue. The life was drained from her eyes. She was frozen in a pose of terror, even with her arms tied behind her back.

I woke up in a cold sweat, alone in my bed. I smelled coffee in the air, which told me Sookie was awake and still in the apartment somewhere. I looked at the clock and saw that it was just after ten. I'd only been asleep for four hours, but the dream I'd sunk into made it seem like it had only been a few minutes. Coffee was going to be a necessity.

I rolled out of bed and immediately went to the bathroom to pee. After that, I checked my phone to see if we'd gotten any hits on the identity of the victim from the night before. So far, we had nothing. The good news was, she had a distinctive trio of tattoos on her lower back. Lined up next to each other she had a wolf's head, an owl and a tiger. I had no idea what those three things meant, but they were distinctive enough that they would be good for identification purposes. She also had fillings in her teeth, which meant we could ID her by dental records.

I really wasn't looking forward to court. The attorney the defendant had hired was a total dick. He was one of those scumbag types who would try to pin blame on just about anyone to create reasonable doubt. He questioned chain of custody on every single piece of evidence that was collected against his client. He tried to convince juries that DNA could be manipulated, or that fingerprints didn't have all the matching points they did. It was ridiculous.

It was a slap in the face to the justice system. It seemed the whole purpose of his dog and pony show was to try and create grounds for a mistrial. He skated on thin ice, and was the bane of the existence of many a trial judge. In short, Bobby Burnham was a slippery little weasel no one would be sorry to see get taken out by one of his disgruntled clients.

I found Sookie in the kitchen, flipping pancakes and wiggling along to music that was playing quietly from my iPod docking station. I'd never seen someone dance like that to Nirvana before, but there was a first time for everything. She smiled over at me, somehow sensing I was standing there, since I hadn't made any sort of noise.

"Morning, sleepyhead."

"You're awfully chipper." I nearly grumbled.

"Well, one of us had to get a full night's sleep." I narrowed my eyes at her, but bent to take the kiss she offered me. "Coffee's extra strong. I figured you could probably use the extra boost."

"Yes, I definitely can. If I don't get a full night's sleep soon, it's going to get ugly." I went over to the cabinet and got down one of my travel mugs.

"How'd it go last night?" Sookie asked as she put two pancakes on a plate and handed it to me.

"It wasn't pretty. We're going to need dental records to identify the body." I didn't want to go into any further detail than that.

"Oh," Sookie made a face and said, "Sorry."

"Yeah, it wasn't a great night." I sighed and shuffled over to the breakfast bar where she'd set out butter and syrup already.

I was doctoring up my pancakes while she plated two for herself and refreshed her coffee. The volume on the iPod got a little lower, and then Sookie sat on the stool next to mine. I liked that Sookie would ask about my job, but she never pressed for details about it the way some people did. I couldn't fathom my people wanted to hear the more gruesome details of some of the horrible things the human race was capable of. All those shows about forensics and crime scene investigation were somewhat educational, but I tended to think they also fed mentally unstable people some pretty terrible ideas.

"Oh, before I forget!" Sookie paused to sip her coffee and clear the mouthful of pancake she was working on. "I stopped by Gran's yesterday before I went to work. She's on my case to get you over for dinner. Is that something you'd be interested in?"

I wiped my mouth on a napkin and nodded. "Sure. I'm working today and tomorrow, but maybe Thursday night?"

"I close on Thursday," Sookie frowned. "What about Sunday for supper?"

I thought about it for a minute and said, "Yeah, that should work."

Sookie's face lit up and said, "Oh, you will have made my Gran's day if you can do Sunday supper."

"Sunday supper sounds good. Is that, like, a tradition?"

Sookie dropped her fork and looked at me like I had two heads. "Oh, honey, you clearly weren't raised in a religious home, were you?"

"Not really. Godric was never much of a believer and Mom... well, she was raised in a religious family, but after some of the things that happened she sort of gave up on God."

"Understandable," Sookie nodded and resumed eating. "Well, up until I went to college, I was at church every Sunday. Trinity United Methodist has been my family's church since the Stackhouses took up roots in Bon Temps. When we were kids, Jason and I were up every Sunday for church. Afterward we came back home and did homework until Gran called us for supper. Every week it was the same thing, and there were always enough leftovers for us to nibble on for the next few days. Sunday was a very big deal in my house."

"Sounds like it."

"Didn't your family have traditions?"

"Of course, just not like that. Although, it was a rule in my house that you had to be home for dinner Monday through Friday. It's probably a good thing, too, since it kept Alexei and I from getting into too much trouble. We could have friends over if we wanted to, but we had to be home. I think the only exceptions allowed was if we had finals coming up, or when I was playing baseball."

"You played baseball? I would have figured you for basketball."

"Yeah, you and just about everyone else I went to high school with. Frankly, I think basketball is boring as hell, and I was better at baseball anyway."

"What position did you play?"

"I started out first base, but I ended up a catcher."

"Isn't the catcher, like, team captain?" Sookie took another bite of her pancakes.

"Something like that. Since we have the advantage of being able to see the whole field and are close to the dugout, we make all the calls from behind home plate." I explained to her.

"Do you still play?"

"Sometimes. We have a department intra-league."

"You do?" Again, her face lit up like it was Christmas morning. "When do you play?"

"Uh, I think we start up again in the fall. Practice on Tuesday nights and games are on Saturday morning."

"Can I come?" she wrapped herself around one of my arms with a cheesy grin on her face.

"Sure. It'll be nice to have my own personal heckler."

"Oh, hush! Besides, Pam would kill me if I took her job."

I laughed and then took a drink of my coffee. "Pam out of bed before noon on a Saturday when she doesn't work? Are you high?"

"I wouldn't heckle you. In fact, I think I might have my old poms outfit around somewhere." Sookie shrugged.

"You were a cheerleader?"

"_No_, I was in Poms. Cheerleaders are the sluts in short, pleated skirts who get knocked up by random football players at bayou keg parties. Poms girls take dance classes and actually pay attention in school. At least, that's the way it was at my high school. The poms girls were the hot nerds. You know, the Tina Feys of the world. _We_ join poms and go to college without a c-section scar."

"You sound bitter." I teased her.

She punched my arm playfully and said, "You sound like you want to sleep alone."

I leaned over and let my voice drop just enough that I knew when I spoke, she'd shiver next to me. It was an unfair weapon to use, I guess, but she had one on me at all times because I could always see her boobs. I hate to sound like a typical male, but they were easily the best I'd ever seen.

"Not at all, lover. In fact, if we had more time, I'd drag you back to bed and go down on you until you begged me to fuck you."

She whimpered next to me and when her eyes met mine, I knew I had her. "How about you just drag me back to bed and fuck me?"

I glanced at the clock, tossed down my fork and threw her over my shoulder. I ended up being twenty minutes late to work.

o.O.o.O.o

Sookie told me Sunday supper with her Gran wasn't formal, exactly, but it wasn't something you wore jeans to. She likened it to what was appropriate for Thanksgiving dinner. So, I ended up dressed much the same as I would be for work in a pair of black pants and a button down shirt. Sookie said I didn't need to bring anything but myself and my manners, but my mother had always told me it was rude to show up empty handed.

I stopped at the store and ended up buying two bouquets of flowers. One was for Sookie, who had a thing for wild flowers, and the other was for her Gran. I told Sookie I would meet her over at her place, since finding the house on Hummingbird Lane could be tricky if you'd never been there before. She'd told me it was easy to miss the turn for the driveway since the house was set so far back from the road.

Sookie had her hair pulled back in a loose ponytail with little wisps of hair blowing around her face and ears when I arrived. She was sitting in her small backyard, reading what I assumed to be the biography of Alfred Hitchcock. She'd started it while we were on the houseboat. We'd spent a great deal of time read aloud to each other while we were laying out in the sun. She told me it was her favorite way to multitask.

"You look very nice this afternoon, Mr. Northman," Sookie marked her page with her finger as she stood up to kiss me hello.

"So do you, Miss Stackhouse. These are for you." I handed over her wildflowers.

"Thank you, they're lovely," she kissed me once more than ducked into the house.

"So, any last minute things I need to know before we go over there?" I asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"Are you nervous, Eric?" Sookie asked in a teasing tone. "Don't be. Gran is going to adore you. Just be your usual charming, respectable self and you'll be just fine. Just be careful what questions you ask about The War, or you'll have to listen to her recount the whole thing from start to finish."

"Thanks for the warning." I leaned against one of the counters. "Also, I finally got a hold of my Mom. I told her I was meeting your Gran today, so she's insisting we have dinner with her and Godric next week."

"Okay. Well, I'm off on Wednesday and I work lunch tomorrow and Thursday, so you pick what day works for you." Sookie smiled as she put her flowers in water.

"I'll talk to Mom and let you know."

Sookie took the flowers to her bedroom and then came back to the kitchen to get a pie out of the fridge. I had no idea when she had time to make the pie, but I could tell it was homemade. Whatever it was, it looked delicious.

"Key lime," Sookie said as if she was reading my mind.

"Looks good."

"You ready to go?"

"Yes, ma'am."

The drive over to Sookie's Gran's only took a few minutes. I held the pie for her while Sookie climbed out of the car. Her Gran was sitting on the porch swing, and waved excitedly to us when we pulled up. She pushed herself up slowly off the swing, and moved to the edge of the porch. Sookie took her pie back and balanced it on one hand, and held my hand with her free one.

"Hi, Gran!" Sookie called as we walked up to the house.

"Hello yourself." Mrs. Stackhouse was practically bouncing, by that point.

"Gran, this is my boyfriend, Eric Northman. Eric, this is my Gran, Adele Stackhouse." Sookie introduced us.

"It's nice to meet you, Eric." Gran reached out to shake my hand.

"Like wise, Mrs. Stackhouse." I handed her the flowers I'd brought.

"Thank you, young man, and fiddlesticks with that missus business. You call me Adele until Sookie smartens up, and then you call me Gran." Adele winked at me.

"Gran!" Sookie admonished.

"Oh, you hush. Jason and Amy will be along any minute. Why don't you give Eric the tour while I check on supper?" Adele suggested.

"Yes, Gran."

"Good girl. I'll be in the kitchen you need me." Adele headed into the house.

"I am so sorry." Sookie whispered, her face flushed with embarrassment.

I snorted and said, "That's nothing. You haven't met my mother yet."

* * *

Is it wrong that I have a teeny tiny crush on Gran in this story? I do. Not gonna lie. Sorry to those who were expecting this chapter to start with shower sex. If you're in need of a shower scene, check out Blood Buzz. I rewrote the epic DTTW shower scene from Eric's POV there. It's a tasty little lemon if I do say so myself. Before I forget, the **Happily Never After Contest** is still going on. We've received a handful of entries, but we'd love to get more. So if you've ever had an idea for a sad ending story but were afraid of posting it because HNAs are generally frowned on, please consider sending your work our way. For more info, check out the HNA Contest profile. A link can be found on my list of favorite authors in my profile page. Thanks for reading!


	5. Twice As Hard

Chapter 5: Twice As Hard

**SPOV**

I showed Eric around the house and didn't complain once when Gran insisted on dragging out the photo albums. She hadn't been able to do that in years, since none of Jason's girlfriends ever seemed to make it long enough to get an introduction to Gran. Amy must really be something if she was coming for Sunday supper. Eric, Gran and I were sitting around the kitchen table talking about our trip to Lake Amistad, when Amy and Jason arrived.

Jason looked extremely uncomfortable in the tie he was wearing, which must have been at Amy's insistence, since I didn't think Jason even owned a tie. The last time I saw him in one was at my college graduation five years before. Amy was wearing a dress similar to mine, only her hair was pulled back in an elaborate braid.

Introductions were made, drinks were offered and before too long, all of us were sitting around the kitchen table together. Gran was so happy she was about to burst. Entertaining put Gran right in her element, and the fact that she was looking at the potential parents for her great grandbabies only further fanned the flames of her excitement. I could practically see her noting the differences in the weddings we might have. She may as well have been calculating who was more likely to announce a baby first, Amy or me.

I learned Amy was from up north, having grown up in an affluent home in Vermont. She'd come from a family that valued bank accounts and Ivy League connections more than anything else. Effectively, she'd cut herself off from her family when she decided she didn't want a cold life like the ones her parents led. She'd gone to the best boarding schools and had one heck of an education, but she felt that, in spite of her parents' best efforts, her education enslaved her more than it set her free.

"There's more to life than books and facts, and I didn't want a museum life." Amy explained.

If she was trying to rebel against her parents, she couldn't have picked a better man to settle down with than my brother. I was willing to bet Jason was the antithesis of everything they turned their snobby noses up at. He was blue collar, not the sharpest tool in the shed and his idea of a good time was beers at Merlotte's with his road crew buddies.

"So, Eric, what made you want to get into law enforcement?" Gran asked, and I grimaced. Not exactly a fun dinner topic.

Eric cleared his throat and said, "My step-brother's parents were murdered when he was three. He was the only witness to the crime, and a judge wouldn't allow his identification of the killers as evidence. I don't want another family to go through what Alexei and my step-father have had to go through."

Jason chose that moment to ask if there was a way Eric could help him fix some parking tickets, which earned him an ear boxing from Gran. Whether he was serious, or had asked for comedic effect, I wasn't sure. My money was on the former, since I didn't think he was clever enough for the latter. Gran was just about to bring out the pie I'd made and her legendary peach cobbler, when Eric had to excuse himself to take a call. Normally, cell phones were forbidden at Sunday supper, but Gran had made an exception for him on account of his job.

A few minutes later, I was very much enjoying my cobbler when Eric came back in with a grim expression on his face. "I'm sorry, Adele, but I have to head back to Shreveport. Some information came in on a case I was assigned to last night."

"Did they get an ID?" I asked before I could stop myself.

Eric nodded and said, "I'm very sorry to cut out early on you like this. Sookie do you think you could get a ride back? I don't want you to leave on account of me."

"Oh, well," Sookie looked to Jason and Amy.

"Go on, sweetheart. I've got this." Adele waved us off.

"Are you sure, Gran? This is an awful lot to clean-"

"Fiddlesticks. Jason has two working arms and an ear I haven't boxed yet if he complains."

Jason quickly snapped his face back to its vacant default setting. Having your ear boxed by Gran was no fun. It had only happened to me once. That was enough. I learned my lesson, but Jason, as I've said before, just wasn't that sharp.

"Adele, it was a pleasure to meet you. Hopefully I won't have to dash out early next time." Eric said to Gran, who pulled him into a hug.

"You're welcome here anytime, young man. You take care of yourself now." Gran even kissed his cheek. Apparently, Gran approved of my boyfriend. "And you, missy, you call me soon."

"Yes, ma'am." I bent to give Gran a hug.

We said our goodbyes to Jason and Amy, and then headed out. Even though it wasn't necessary, Eric walked me to my door like the gentleman he was. Although that gentleman disappeared when he kissed me goodnight. Damn, could that man kiss. We reluctantly pulled apart, and I stood at my front door to wave at him until he was gone.

"Goodnight, Sookie," he kissed my forehead.

"Night, Eric." I tried to control my shaking knees.

I leaned against the door and watched until her was gone. I kicked off my shoes once I was inside, and headed back to my bedroom to change clothes. It was relatively early on Sunday evening, but I was tired. It had been a long and busy week. I put on a pair of boy shorts and a tank top. I curled up on my couch and channel surfed for a while. I let myself get sucked into the sob story of a family on _Extreme Home Makeover_, and I was bawling when the family came home to their new house.

The stories were shades of the same week after week. Normally I didn't bother with it, but I wanted something mindless that would let me think about nothing for a while. I was thankful Gran approved of Eric, although I hadn't been worried she wouldn't. I'd been a bit apprehensive over how she'd react to him being a police officer, if only because it was a dangerous profession.

I thought about all the times I'd nearly told Eric I loved him in the last week. In some ways I knew I was stalling for time because I was scared. I wasn't so scared over whether or not he said it back right way, I wasn't that insecure. I was more worried that maybe he just wouldn't ever feel that way. I didn't want to hear it just because he thought it was he was supposed to say. Everything I knew about Eric Northman told me he wasn't the appeasing type. He wasn't the sort to toss around words to save himself and argument or some trouble.

No, Eric said what he meant, and meant what he said. There was very little room to guess what Eric meant when he spoke. It was nice to know I wasn't dating the Riddler. I didn't have to try and decode his meanings when he spoke to me. If he told me he wanted me to come over for dinner, I didn't need to ask if he was sure. If he didn't want me in his home, he wouldn't invite me over. There was none of this, 'we should hang out sometime' business.

He was so confident. He made everything look so easy. I felt ridiculous for laying there on the couch like I was. I resolved I would tell him how I felt the next time I saw him. Bottling the feeling up wasn't going to make it go away, and I didn't want a wedge to form between us because I wasn't being honest with him. If there was one thing Eric despised, it was lying. He was very much about loyalty, honesty and trust. I didn't want to disappoint him, and I was tired of feeling the weight of my secret pressing me down.

Decision made, I turned off the TV, got a glass of water and went to bed. I sent Eric a text message to let him know I was going to sleep and I missed him. I wasn't expecting a response from him. I figured he was in with the medical examiner, or going over case notes with Pam. But I got a response from him a few seconds later.

_There's something I've been meaning to talk to you about. Dinner tomorrow?_

I sent a text back that I would be happy to meet him the next day. He sent one more text, asking me to meet him at his house at seven, which I readily agreed to. My heart was flip-flopping in my chest. Could he... I mean, maybe he loved me? I let the thoughts race through my mind as fast as they wanted to. I felt dizzy and lightheaded. I was that sort of scared/nervous/excited I wasn't used to feeling unless it was the night before the first day of school. What a weird analogy that is, but it's the way it felt.

My cell phone ringing the next morning was what woke me. I blindly groped around for the phone, having no idea what time it was or who the hell would be calling me that early. I finally found the phone and opened one eye just enough to see where the answer button was on the touch screen.

"Hello?" I tried not to sound too sleepy, but I'm pretty sure it was obvious.

"Good morning, may I speak with Sookie Stackhouse, please?" A cheerfully sweet and southern voice asked.

"You got her." I rolled onto my back.

"Sookie, this is Claudine Crane, calling from the Crane Foundation. We received your resume for the position of benefits coordinator in our human resources department, and I was hoping you might have some time to come in and chat with me." Claudine spoke like she had memorized a script, but that didn't matter.

I sat bolt upright in bed, suddenly very wide awake. "Yes, Claudine, that would be wonderful! I, uh, I have to be at work in a few hours, but I have Wednesday off, if that's not too late."

"Not at all. In fact, would you be free for lunch on Wednesday?"

"I am available any time you want to see me that day." I promised her as I got out of bed to start going through my clothes. I hadn't been on a job interview since that internship in college.

"Great. How about we meet at Summerland Cafe?" she suggested.

"Sure, that would be great. What time?"

"Let's say eleven thirty, if that's alright with you?"

"Perfect. I look forward to meeting you, Claudine."

"Likewise. Oh, and Sookie, if you have an references, please bring those with you."

"Will do." I said nervously. "Thank you, Claudine."

"You're welcome. See you soon," she hung up.

I stood there and stared at my phone for a minute, completely stunned and excited at the same time. When the shock wore off, I screamed, then danced around my room like a fool. It took a few minutes for me settle down. I wanted to call Eric and tell him everything, but it was early, and I was sure he'd gotten home late. I sat on the edge of my bed in a daze.

I realized this was the first time something exciting happened in my life, and Gran wasn't the first person to come into my head. Even when I'd been dating Alcide and Quinn, Gran had still ranked above them. Not that I didn't want to call Gran and tell her, she just wasn't first on the list anymore. I felt my heart squeeze a little at that, but it was bound to happen someday, wasn't it?

I went back to looking at everything in my closet to try and find something appropriate for my lunch/interview with Claudine. When I wasn't convinced I had anything appropriate, I called Amelia and told her what had happened. She invited me over to raid her wardrobe, but there simply wasn't going to be time for that later on. I was going to have to make something work. So, instead, she offered to come by the following night and see what she could put together for me.

I grabbed a few pieces from my closet that I thought might work, and hung them on the door of the spare bedroom. I called Gran and filled her in before I got in the shower to get ready for work. By the time I was leaving the house for my shift at Merlotte's, I was bouncing off the walls again. Gran was notably excited for me. I had to chill out, though, since there was Sam to consider in all of this. Leaving Merlotte's wasn't going to be easy for me. It would definitely be the end of an era.

But maybe that was a good thing. I had Eric in my life, and barring him breaking up with me later that night, things were going well. I didn't think he was breaking up with me. Eric would have just come right out with it instead of sitting on it. He wasn't like me, over-thinking things to death before making a decision. He listened to his gut and he went with it. Maybe he was starting to rub off on me a little.

Of course, Sam immediately knew something was up when I bounced into the restaurant like I'd sprinkled crack into my Lucky Charms. I put my things away in my cubbie like usual, then clocked myself in and went to get a clean apron from the stock room. Sam stood in the doorway while I tied the apron on, drumming his fingers on the jamb.

"What?" I asked him blankly.

"You know what. You look like you're about to burst."

"I'm happy, Sam. Is that a crime?"

"No, of course not."

"Look, I don't feel comfortable discussing it yet, so just enjoy my good mood while it lasts." I advised him.

Sam narrowed his eyes, obviously peeved at me for not spilling my guts. I wasn't about to go jinxing myself by talking up this new job when I didn't even really know what it was. Besides, all I got was a phone call and an interview. If I got something more substantial, _then_ I would talk to Sam. Until then, all new in relation to prospective employers would stay with people not connected to Merlotte's. Which reminded me I needed to call Gran and ask her not to tell Jason, or he'd do all the telling for me.

o.O.o.O.o

"I ordered pizza. I hope you don't mind." Eric greeted me at the door when I got to his apartment hours later.

"Not at all." I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tightly. It was nice to just breathe him in. He stroked my hair and kissed the top of my head. "How was your day?"

"We'll get to that in a minute. There's something I've been putting off talking to you about, and I don't want to let it slip past us again." Eric wrapped his arm around me and led me to the living room.

I sat down on his couch, expecting him to take a seat next to me. Instead, he got down on his knees in front of me. He held one of my hands while he reached in his pocket for something. I had a slight moment of panic overwhelm me. The pose we were in indicated a very specific line of questioning was about to take place. I gasped, and didn't even bother to try to get my hand to stop shaking, even though I knew he could feel it.

"Eric, what are you doing?" My voice was as shaky as my hand.

"I've been doing a lot of thinking. That week we spent in Lake Amistad is the best week I've had in maybe my whole life, and definitely the best of the last few years. I know it's fast, and I understand if it's too fast for you, but I have to tell you this because it's been on the tip of my tongue for days. I love you, Sookie," his hand came out of his pocket and he held up a key. "I'm not asking you to move in with me, _yet_, but I want you to have this. I want you to come and go at will, and I want you to feel comfortable here. I want you to know that when I think about the future, I see you in it. So, I'm giving you this key because it's the first step to something bigger and better for us both."

He turned my hand over and put the key in it. I stared down at my hand, not sure what to do with the key. It was unexpected, and I was trapped somewhere between being elated and disappointed Eric hadn't skipped a whole bunch of steps and asked me The Question.

"Eric, this is..." I trailed off. It was right there, the moment I'd been waiting for. It was the perfect time to tell him I loved him, that I'd been feeling those very same things since we got off the boat in Lake Amistad, and maybe even before that.

"You don't have to say anything, Sookie. I just want you to know how I feel." There was no disappointment in his eyes or his voice when I hesitated a moment too long.

"Eric, wait," I pulled him back when he started to stand up. "Wait, you just threw me for a minute there." I took a deep breath.

"It's too fast, right?"

"No, oh, God, Eric, no, it's not too fast. It's perfect, actually." I stared down at the key for a few seconds. "See, the thing is-"

And of course, that's the moment the doorbell rang to let us know the pizza had arrived. All of the air in my lungs rushed out. It figured I would wait too long, as usual, and completely miss a great opportunity. I swear, it was a miracle Eric and I were even a couple at all. I sat on the couch with my head thrown back and my eyes closed.

"Sookie, what's wrong?" Eric asked when he came back with two pizza boxes in his hands.

"Will you put the pizza down? There's something I want to say to you, too." I shifted on the couch so I was on my knees in front of him.

Eric put the pizza down and I dropped his key on the glass surface of the coffee table in front of me. He looked a bit confused, but let me take his hands when I reached for them.

"Last week when we got back and I was alone in my house, for the first time since I moved in, I felt alone. It felt like something was missing, and every time I saw something funny on TV, I'd turn to tell you about it but you weren't there. And then when I finally talked myself into going to bed, you weren't there either. Every time I reached across the mattress, it was empty. All I could think was how pathetic it would be if I called you, or got in the car and just showed up here. I mean, I'm a big girl. I should be able to spend the night by myself, but every time I go to bed alone now, all I can think is that I'm not where I belong. And then you showed up at my house. You didn't call. You didn't ask. You knew what you needed, and you went and got it. Maybe some day I'll be that strong, maybe being in love with you will make me a better version of me." I said it all so fast that by the time I was done, I didn't even know why Eric was kissing me.

Pizza was the last thing on either of our minds at that point. There was a fast and furious blizzard of flying clothes. When Eric tossed my t-shirt it knocked over a model of a Viking ship he had on the sideboard table close to the hallway. He literally ripped off my panties before shoving me back onto the couch. I hadn't gotten my bearings back when he dropped to his knees once again and his face disappeared between my thighs.

My hands were immediately in his hair, tugging gently while my hips bucked against his tongue. He held onto me tightly as I squirmed under him. The more I squirmed, the more intensely he sucked on my clit, and when my body started to shake, he used his teeth gently. I swear, I almost pulled a handful of hair out of his head when I came.

I twisted onto my side, my eyes closed while I tried to catch my breath. Eric managed to lay down behind me. I turned my head as far as I could and he kissed me while lifting me leg to enter me from behind. I moaned in his mouth, and pushed myself back to meet his thrusts. It was slow and sweet and when Eric's hand wasn't on my breast, playing with my nipple, it was working between my legs. He teased me right to the brink of another orgasm before backing off to draw out the feeling.

Sometimes I didn't know what was better: the build up, or the release itself. I was thankful when he pulled out to change our position because my neck was starting to cramp up from being twisted like it was. I found myself straddling his lap, riding him slowly and nibbling on his neck. His fingers trailed up and down my spine, making goose bumps appear all over my body.

"I love you, Eric," I whispered to him when I felt my orgasm starting to build again. "I love you so much. I love the way you feel inside me, and the way you grab my hips or scrape your teeth against my collarbone." I gasped when he grabbed my hips and pulled me down on him a little harder. "Oh, God, do that again."

And he did. He did it over and over until my fingernails were digging into his shoulders and my head rolled back. His lips closed around one of my nipples while he thrust up hard and fast into me. A couple of curse words came out of his mouth in between grunts and growls.

"Ugh, Eric, so close," I moaned and threw myself forward.

His hands were in my hair, tilting my head one way, then the other, when my orgasm exploded. He followed me right over the edge, pulling me down with one last, hard thrust. My muscles gave out and I collapsed against him. His heart was pounding under my cheek. His hands were still in my hair, massaging my scalp.

I pulled back and looked him in his eyes with a smile on my face. "Thank you."

"For what?" he stroked my neck.

"For the key. For being you. I know it sounds cheesy, but you make me feel better, Eric. You make me feel stronger. That's one of the reasons I love you." I leaned in and kissed him.

By the time we got to the pizza more than an hour later, we had to warm it up in the microwave. We snuggled up together on the couch to eat. Eric told me a bit about the case he'd caught a few days before. He didn't really talk about work too much, but the case was bothering him. He told me if it was too much, he didn't have to talk about it, but it meant a lot to me that he trusted me enough to talk to me.

"Eric, it's like I said before; I'm here for you. I understand why you don't want to bring it home with you, but it's unavoidable sometimes. Besides, maybe I can help, even if it's just by listening." I kissed his cheek.

He took a deep breath and said, "We got an ID on the victim. The official cause of death is an overdose on heroine. The coroner is ruling her death a suicide. A note was found in her pocket, blaming her ex for her death."

"Sounds pretty straight forward." I took another bite of my pizza.

"It does. The scene was staged pretty well."

"Staged?"

"Something about it is off to me. We collected evidence that doesn't belong at a suicide, and after notifying the family, we learned that the victim wasn't known t have a drug habit. Now, that doesn't mean she wasn't a user, but her family insists that wasn't something Debbie would do."

I nodded and asked, "So the family is having a hard time accepting the coroner's ruling?"

"To put it mildly, yes, they are. And because the victim's father is a city employee-"

"Wait, is this the Debbie Pelt thing?" I asked when I remembered hearing something about it on the news at lunch. "Sorry, it was on the news earlier."

Eric sighed and nodded.

"I knew her." I volunteered.

Eric's jaw dropped. "You _knew_ Debbie Pelt?"

"Well, sort of. We dated the same guy, her before me. Did I ever tell you about my ex-boyfriend, Alcide?"

"Alcide Herveaux?" Eric set his plate down on the coffee table.

"Yeah. We dated a few years ago when he stationed here at the Air Force Base. It never got super serious, but he'd just gotten out of a relationship with a woman he said was borderline crazy. We were out to dinner one night. Alcide went to the bathroom and left me alone at the table. Out of nowhere, this crazy ass woman with big turquoise blue eyes and this tramp stamp-"

"Tramp stamp?"

"Yeah, it was weird. She had an owl and a wolf, I think, tattooed right above her ass. Alcide told me later that the owl had something to do with one of her ex's, and she'd gotten the wolf like, a week after she started dating Alcide. It was his call sign."

Eric lurched forward and kissed me hard and until I was out of air.

"What was that for?"

"We need to go to the station. Now." Eric grabbed my hand and pulled me off the couch.

* * *

Buckle your seatbelts, baby birds, it's about to get interesting up in hurr. Thanks for reading!


	6. Can't You See

Chapter 6: Can't You See

**EPOV**

The last thing I wanted was to give up our comfy positioning there on the couch, but Sookie seemed to have some pretty valuable information that might help my case. I wanted to make sure there would be no question as to how the information was obtained. I didn't want it ruled out because it was what some might consider to be pillow talk.

We got dressed and went to the station. Stan wasn't in the Bat Cave when we got there, but our sergeant was on duty. Tray Dawson was a very well decorated officer with quite a few commendations to his name. He did everything, and I mean _everything_, by the book. He had no patience for shortcuts, or the use of excessive force to coerce a confession out of someone. The confession was no good if it got thrown out.

"Northman, what the hell are you doing here?" Dawson asked when he saw me walk in at almost ten o'clock.

"I've got some new information on the Pelt case." I squeezed Sookie's hand.

"Northman, it's a suicide." Dawson shook his head.

"Yeah, I know, but something isn't right. I can feel it. Things just aren't adding up for me."

"Look, I know there's pressure from the family on this, but-"

"No, Dawson, it's not even about the family. Yes, they want us to dig a little deeper, but even if they weren't so insistent about this, it'd be bothering me anyway. I'm telling you, we're missing something and it's right under our noses." I insisted.

Dawson sighed and pointed to Sookie. "Who's she?"

"I'm Sookie Stackhouse." Sookie stepped forward and extended her hand to Tray. "I sorta of knew Debbie."

"She knows what the tattoos mean," I offered to Dawson. "I just wanted to get her statement here."

"Why here?" Dawson quirked an eyebrow.

"Because Sookie's my girlfriend." I put my arm around her shoulders, and she snuggled against me.

Dawson looked from her face to mine, then smiled. "Fuck! I owe Stan a bill now."

"What?"

"We had a bet going on why you've been so fucking chipper. There's another bet on when you're going to start singing and dancing."

Assholes.

"Eric hums, but he doesn't sing." Sookie volunteered. Traitor. Dawson busted out laughing, while I pinched Sookie's ass. "Well you do!"

"If you two are done giving me a hard time, do you think we could get this over with? Sookie and I have some... _celebrating_ to do." I wiggled my eyebrows at her and she blushed.

"So what do you need me for?" Dawson stared at me.

"I just want a witness in case anyone thinks this is a scam or I'm feeding Sookie information. I don't want any problems because she and I have a personal relationship." I explained to Dawson.

"Just record the conversation. Take her to the gray room."

I looked around the office. There were two detectives doing paperwork in the back, minding their own business. The phones weren't ringing, but that wasn't unusual. It was pretty quiet in the office overnight, surprisingly enough, but that was because we were mostly on-call.

"Like you're doing anything pressing?"

"Fine. You go get it set up and I'll get the coffee. Sookie, can I get you anything?" Dawson asked politely.

"Uh, water would be great. I can't drink coffee this late."

"You're obviously not in law enforcement," Dawson snickered.

"You guys protect and I serve." Sookie snorted, but the joke went over Dawson's head. "I'm a waitress."

"Right." Dawson nodded and I rolled my eyes.

He went to get the coffee while I took Sookie to the gray room. Each interrogation room was painted a different color, but the gray room was the only room with the ability to record audio and video. The other rooms just had closed circuit monitoring. I pulled out a chair for Sookie so she could take a seat. I left her in the room for just a minute while I went to get the forms for her to fill out. I doubted she was going to need to testify, if I was right about Debbie's suicide actually being a homicide. I just wanted to make sure everything was on the up and up.

Dawson walked in a few minutes later with two large mugs of coffee and a bottle of water for Sookie. I got the recording going, and the three of us sat around the table like we'd known each other for years. Sookie took a swig of her water while Dawson stirred his coffee.

"Are you ready?" I asked Sookie, who nodded. "Will you please state your name for the record?"

"Sookie Stackhouse."

"And why are you here, Miss Stackhouse?" I smiled at her.

She smiled back and said, "Because I may have some helpful information in regards to the Debbie Pelt case."

From that point on, Sookie launched into an explanation as to how she'd come to meet Debbie Pelt. She talked about her relationship with Alcide, which wasn't particularly fun for me to hear, but thankfully, I didn't need to ask too many questions that would require in depth answers. Even though her statement was recorded, I had her write everything down for me as well. It didn't take long to learn everything Sookie knew about Debbie Pelt and the relationship both women had with Alcide Herveaux.

Somewhere along the way, I slipped into detective mode. I stopped treating Sookie like she was my girlfriend without even realizing I'd done it, and it wasn't until we were back at the apartment and she pushed me up against the wall (no easy feat for a woman about a foot shorter than me) that I realized I'd been treating her differently. I stood there against the door, stunned by her aggressive action. Sookie could definitely be vocal about what she wanted, but she wasn't really one for getting hands-on aggressive.

She yanked her shirt off, taking her bra with it. Before I could speak, she was pulling my mouth to hers. I lifted her off the floor and quickly walked back to my bedroom with her wrapped around me. I set her down on my bed and our kiss broke long enough for her to start undressing me.

"Sookie, what has gotten into you?" I wasn't complaining, just curious.

"I told you cop talk was sexy." And with that, she was kissing me again.

I reached to unbutton her jeans and they were only down to mid-thigh when she pushed my hands out of the way. She turned around on her knees and bent over. She pulled down her own panties just enough and I could see how wet she was. My pants were around my ankles in record time and I slid inside her easily. Her fingers curled around the comforter, grabbing onto it hard.

"Maybe I should get my cuffs," I was joking, but she moaned at the suggestion and put her hands behind her back so her face was in the mattress.

It felt too good to stop at that moment, but I made a mental note for next time. I held onto her wrists and pounded against her. She never really stopped moaning after that, except to tell me to go harder or faster. Her eyes were closed and her mouth was open, gasping for air with each thrust of my hips. Skin slapped against skin as I fucked her. That was really the only way to describe what was happening. It wasn't sweet or gentle, it was raw and passionate, and the rougher I was, the more she begged.

She screamed my name when she came, and I slowly my thrusts just a little bit, drawing out the pleasure of her orgasm. She shivered, then whined when I pulled out of her. I flipped her on her back and pulled her jeans and panties the rest of the way off. Before I could get on the bed, she moved to the edge of the mattress and wrapped her lips around the head of my cock. Her eyes met mine as she started stroking me.

I'd never seen that expression in her eyes before, but I liked it. She sucked, stroked and licked until I pulled her away and climbed up on the bed with her. I positioned myself between her open thighs and rubbed the head of my cock against her clit until she was squirming and begging for me to fuck her again. Her nails clawed at my thighs, trying to get me to enter her.

"Where do you want me, Sookie? Show me." I nipped at her ear.

Her hands moved between us and she guided me inside her. I pushed her knees up toward her chest and slowly pulled out, only to slam back in again. My headboard rattled against the wall and she was grabbing the comforter again. She was so hot and wet, and when her next orgasm came, it milked mine from me as well. I came hard and kept on thrusting until I had to pull out of her.

I collapsed on the bed next to her and gathered her close. "Holy..." I trailed off. "I love you."

"I love you, too," she sucked on my neck gently.

I realized then that I could do that, with her, every night for the rest of my life. I couldn't see it with anyone else. She was the one.

o.O.o.O.o

I was elated when the feeling that Sookie was the one didn't dissipate with my post orgasmic haze. If anything, the feeling intensified. Sookie was making breakfast when I woke up the next morning. I took a quick shower before joining her at the breakfast bar where she had scrambled eggs and bacon waiting for me.

"If I'm not careful, I'm going to get used to this," I kissed the side of her head before sitting beside her.

"What happened to bigger and better things in our future? Or was that just a line to get me into bed with you?" Sookie smirked before raising a fork full of eggs to her mouth.

"Nope, not at all. You're welcome any time you want to come. And you don't even have to cook for me. Although, I very much appreciate it when you do." I took a bite of the eggs she'd made.

"Your phone was ringing a little while ago, but I didn't have the heart to wake you." Sookie confessed. When I didn't get up to check my messages, she looked at me with a shocked expression.

"What?"

"Usually you're pretty much glued to your phone."

"Well, I want to enjoy breakfast with my girlfriend. I have to track down Alcide today to talk to him, and I have a meeting with Gordon and Barbara Pelt later on. I don't know how late I'm going to be."

"I close tonight anyway." Sookie reminded me. "Have you talked to your Mom about dinner yet?"

I winced. I'd completely forgotten about calling Mom back. "I forgot. I'll call her on my way to work."

"Please do. I don't want her to think I'm avoiding her." Sookie gave me a pointed stare.

"Sookie, she knows I get busy. It's not that big of a deal." I assured her with a smile.

"Well, it's a big deal to me. If we're serious about the future, I want her to like me, and dodging dinner invitations is not the way to make that happen."

"I promise I will call her and set it up."

"Good," she breathed a sigh of relief.

That was the closest we'd come to an argument in the entire time we'd been dating. Twenty minutes later I was checking my messages. Stan called to tell me Alcide had been located. He was in town to check the property his father left him. A meeting had been scheduled, and Alcide was expecting Pam and I to pay him a visit just after lunch.

Sookie shooed me off to get ready for work while she cleaned up the breakfast mess. I'd told her to leave it for me to clean up later, but she wouldn't hear of it. It was nice to kiss her goodbye at the door before I left. I drove to the police station, and found Pam already at her desk. She was watching the footage of Sookie's statement.

"Morning, Pam," I said pleasantly as I took my seat my desk across from hers.

"I knew that name sounded familiar to me when I heard it." Pam was clearly annoyed with herself. "You know, I've been thinking about what you said... if this was a straight suicide, what's with the ligature marks on her wrists?"

"She could have been into something kinky," I shrugged, getting a smirk out of Pam that told me I wasn't going to like what I was about to hear.

"I've done my fair share of tying up little pretties," Pam's near leer was disturbing. "Now, the hardcore types will let you use rope, but usually, it's handcuffs," there was a pause for an eyebrow wiggle there. "Or silk scarves. My bet is, Miss Pelt didn't volunteer to be tied up, and for he sake of our case, I hope I'm right."

"So we're thinking she was abducted, drugged and dropped?" I asked Pam.

She shrugged and said, "Crazier things have happened. I think we need to divide and conquer here. One of us meets with the Pelts and the other meets with Herveaux."

"Good idea. I'll meet with Herveaux," I volunteered.

Pam snorted and said, "Want to check out the skeletons in Sookie's closet, huh?"

I glared at Pam. That had nothing to do with it. Besides, Alcide was married. He'd left Sookie for another woman. That was his loss and my gain. I had no reason to be jealous of him whatsoever, especially considering Sookie had made it clear the relationship was never serious. She'd certainly never been in love with him.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I had a text message from Sookie.

_Not to be a nag, but did you call your mother? I love you xoxo_

I cursed under my breath, then headed out to the lobby to make the call. Mom answered on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Hey, Mom, it's me."

"Eric, honey, how are you?"

"Kind of busy, but I wanted to call and let you know Sookie said she would be thrilled to come for dinner. How about next Wednesday?"

"That would be wonderful! I can't wait to meet her, sweetheart. How's work?"

"Same shit, different day. Look, Mom, I can't really talk right now, but I'll give you a call later, okay?"

"Okay. Be safe, honey." Mom blew me a kiss over the phone like she always did.

"I will. Love you, Mom." I said, then hung up.

Mom didn't hate that I was a cop, but she would have preferred I'd chosen a less dangerous profession. I couldn't blame her for worrying. Truthfully, anything could happen. No matter how safe I tried to be, and no matter how good Pam was at having my back, neither of us were bulletproof. All it took was one lucky shot, and it was lights out for either of us.

I went back to my desk and looked over my notes and started a list of questions to ask, based on the information Sookie had given us and the evidence collected at the scene. I looked at a picture the Pelts had provided us. The Debbie they knew was a very different Debbie from the one we'd found in the woods. Granted, she'd been dead a few days, but there was absolutely no trace of the upper-middle class woman in the photograph they'd given us.

For starters, the acrylic nails were gone, and it appeared as though Debbie had a nervous habit of biting her nails. Her makeup was smeared instead of expertly applied. She certainly wasn't wearing an angora sweater and khaki pants. Instead, she was found in a pair of tight, low slung jeans and a white corset. There was another tattoo just below her pubic bone we hadn't been able to see when we'd found her body. It was like looking at two different people.

I was anxious to hear from Debbie's sister. Maybe she knew something about Debbie no one else knew. Sisters shared secrets, right? I knew Alexei had shared a few things with me he would never tell anyone else. I assumed Debbie and Sandra were the same way. I also knew that if Debbie _did_ have a drug problem, we were going to have a hell of a time convincing her parents of it. They were adamant their daughter wasn't into that. They could admit Debbie was a little wild from time to time, but they outright refused to believe she was into anything illegal.

I wished Pam luck on her meeting with the Pelts, then headed out to meet Alcide. I took the cruiser Pam and I had been assigned to, and drove out to the Herveaux property on the outskirts of town. A shiny white pickup truck was parked in front of the house. A pretty petite brunette woman with a few blonde streaks in her hair was sitting on the steps, watching a little girl with dark, curly hair and bright green eyes pull a wagon full of baby dolls around the yard.

I grabbed my briefcase and got out of the car. The woman stood up and greeted me with a smile. "Detective Northman?"

"Yes, ma'am, and you are?"

"Maria-Starr. I'm Alcide's wife. Would you like to come in?" her voice was soft and charitable.

"Yes, thank you."

"Mama up!" The little girl thrust her arms up at Maria-Starr. Her little eyes were wide and scared. "Who dat?" she pointed to me.

"This is Detective Northman. He's a policeman." Maria-Starr explained to the frightened girl.

"Bad boys!" the little girl giggled.

"Yes, that's right. He gets the bad guys." Maria-Starr rolled her eyes, then looked at me. "My nephew got her watching Cops."

I laughed and said, "Well, at least she knows what we do."

"Yes, I guess she does. Come on in, Detective." Maria-Starr held the screen door for me. "Alc, Detective Northman is here!"

"Be right down!" Alcide called from somewhere in the house.

I followed Maria-Starr to the living room. She sat down with her daughter in her lap. The little girl continued to look at me with inquisitive eyes until her father appeared. Immediately, she climbed off her mother's lap and went straight for her father. He hefted her up like it was nothing, and sat down beside his wife on the couch. Their daughter wiggled between them and held onto their hands like she was bolstering them with her itty bitty toddler determination.

"Alcide, I'm Detective Eric Northman. Thank you both for meeting with me. I'm sure this whole thing has been rather inconvenient for you." I said as I opened my briefcase to get my legal pad out.

"Well, I haven't seen Debbie in years. We dated for three years before I found out she was seeing someone else. His name was Thomas Owlsey, if I remember right."

Ah ha, so that was what the owl tattoo was about. Sookie was right, she just didn't know the reason why Debbie had chosen the owl.

"So I take it your parting wasn't exactly amicable?"

"Debbie assumed that since I was often away on training assignments, I was sleeping with other women behind her back. When I found out she was sleeping with Tom, I broke it off with her. She refused to accept it, and decided I was cheating on her when I started seeing someone new."

"That was Sookie Stackhouse?"

Alcide's eyes widened and said, "Yes, it was. Sookie and I were only together for a short time before I was transferred up to Nellis, which is where I met Maria-Starr."

"And you two have been married for how long now?" I asked.

"It'll be two years in September," Maria-Starr beamed over at Alcide. "We eloped."

Alcide smiled adoringly at his wife and said, "It was Las Vegas. It seemed like the obvious choice."

I wondered if Sookie and I stared at each other the way Alcide and Maria-Starr were. If we did, I was going to have to take steps to correct that.

"Was Debbie aware of your marriage?" I asked.

"She found out after the fact. Since her father works for the city of Shreveport, he occasionally had meetings with one of the commanding officers at the base. It's my understanding that Gordon Pelt and Colonel Flood have become fairly good friends, and as result, Debbie became friends with the Colonel's daughter, Amanda. I still had friends back at the base, and word tends to travel rather quickly when a guy gets married or has a kid. So, I'm guessing the Colonel heard the news and passed it along to Amanda, who told Debbie."

"Two weeks after the wedding, she showed up in Vegas and followed me to a grocery store. She'd tried to get on the base, but they wouldn't let her in since she had no business there. I was coming out with groceries, and she dumped an orange soda on me." Maria-Starr recalled. "She screamed at me over and over, calling me a whore and telling me Alcide didn't love me, and our marriage wasn't going to last because he was going to come back to her."

"We filed for a restraining order, which we were granted. Debbie went back to Louisiana, and we haven't heard from her since." Alcide said.

"Actually, that's not entirely true." Maria-Starr looked nervous.

"What do you mean?" Alcide asked before I could.

"Well, a couple of weeks ago I was at that Mommy & Me class with Maddie. We were coming out of the gym, and Debbie was there. She was with this big, muscly guy who looked like maybe he was training for one of those UFC fights, or something. She glared at me like she knew who I was, and when she saw Maddie toddling along next to me, her face turned bright red. I didn't tell you because she didn't come up to me or start any trouble. I figured she was probably as surprised to see me as I was to see her. I got Maddie in the car and went straight home. But then three days later, we started getting hang up calls at home." Maria-Starr stared down at her daughter with guilt on her face.

"And that's why you had our number changed?" Alcide was pissed. I didn't blame him.

"I didn't want to worry you, Alcide. It was a few phone calls. I thought changing the number and having it unlisted would put a stop to it."

"And that's it? She didn't try to get near you or Maddie?"

"No! Alc, if she had come near either of us I would have screamed blood murder and called the police, I swear."

"Mrs. Herveaux, where were you on the night of July 27th?" I had to ask.

Alcide's eyes locked on mine, complete fury etched on his face. "She was home with me and our daughter."

"Can anyone verify that?" I hated to ask, but I had to.

"Our neighbors, Lindsay and Charlie. We have a townhouse in Las Vegas, and they share a wall with us. They have a son a few months older than Maddie. Lindsay and I are both housewives, so we spend a lot of time together. Charlie's an Army vet." Maria-Starr told me.

"Do you have a number where I can reach them?" I asked. Not only did I want to verify that Maria-Starr and Alcide had been home, but I also wanted to see if they noticed anything strange going on at the Herveaux house.

Maria-Starr seemed like the sort that was too sweet and gentle to hurt a house fly, much less another human being, but when it came down to her life, her husband's life, or the life of her child, it was amazing what a person was capable of. Something told me Maria-Starr very much had it in her to be a mama lion where her baby was concerned.

"Here," Maria-Starr handed me a slip of paper with Lindsay and Charlie's names, address and phone numbers written on it. "Detective, I may not have been Debbie Pelt's biggest fan, but I certainly didn't wish her harm, and I can assure you I had nothing to do with her death. Neither did my husband."

Alcide grabbed his wife's hand and squeezed tightly.

"I'm not saying you did. I just need to exclude you for obvious reasons." I explained to them.

I asked a few more questions about Debbie, and got a clearer picture of the sort of person she was. She was definitely wild, and was known to do things on an impetuous whim. She had a fairly nasty temper, and she'd lashed out at Alcide a few times over the course of their relationship. Alcide had no knowledge of a drug problem, although he did say Debbie was pretty prone to drinking excessively when she got depressed. He said her moods could be pretty unstable sometimes.

He'd thought he was a positive influence on her, but the traveling required for his job started to get in the way. He'd be gone for just a few days and in that time, Debbie would convince herself he was leading some sort of double life. She started accusing him of cheating, and after a two week trip to Ramstein for a special training mission, he came home to learn she'd started seeing someone else. She denied it, of course, but there were plenty of people who saw her. She was dragging her new boyfriend around to the base hang outs, flaunting it around that just because Alcide had lost interest in her, it didn't mean she wasn't still a catch.

"Everyone got pretty sick of her nonsense. I felt kind of responsible for it, since it was the coming and going that seemed to be messing her up. I didn't realize she'd always been a little on the crazy side. I thought I could help her, but I realized she didn't think she had a problem. As far as she was concerned, _I_ was the problem. It just got to be too much, so I had to cut her loose." Alcide took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes.

Maddie began to fuss so Maria-Starr took her into the other room. Alcide watched his wife and daughter disappear around the corner. He lowered her voice when he spoke next.

"Detective, I know Debbie sounds a little crazy, and she was..."

"But?"

"But she was too angry to kill herself. She wasn't the kind who was going to take herself out of the equation. If she was going to suffer, she was going to make sure she wasn't doing it alone." Alcide exhaled loudly through his nose, then stood up.

Unfortunately, I was pretty sure Alcide was right. I just had to find a way to prove it.

* * *

I don't really have anything to say here except reviews are love, and it's entirely possible that the Level 5 Flurricane going on around me might knock out my interwebs. Soooo if you don't see an update in the next few days, that's why. Thanks for reading!


	7. Thirty Three

Chapter 7: Thirty-three

**SPOV**

It was obvious to me the second I set eyes on her that Heidi was Eric's mother. Like her son, she was taller than average. She had his same blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She was thin without being narrow. Her fingers were long and her hand was warm when she shook mine. Godric was, much like Alexei, the polar opposite to the Nordic features of his wife and step-son.

Like Alexei, Godric was soft spoken, but made sure his words packed a punch when he did speak. He became more animated when he talked about cooking, and what a spiritual experience it could be. His passion for food was a bit contagious, and by the time dinner was served, I was seriously considering culinary school. He was just that good.

"So, Sookie, Eric tells me you had a job interview last week?" Heidi passed me a glass of white wine.

"I did. It went very well, I think. The woman I met with- Claudine- was very personable and sweet."

"What company did you interview for?"

"The Crane Foundation."

Godric turned with a smile on his face. "That's the company that wants in on a partnership for my restaurant."

"Really?" I smiled back at him. "What's your impression of the company?"

"They've got a wide variety of interests and some pretty big holdings in northwestern Louisiana, most notably the genetics labs they run and the chain of drug stores. They've also put funding into a few childrens homes down in New Orleans and they started a camp for orphaned children at Lake Charles. When I met with Fintan, I got the impression they were interested in furthering their investments in small businesses to keep themselves diversified. One of the Cranes even owns a place out near Ruston that was backed by the Foundation. To me it seems like a very well run organization. I've met Claudine a time or two. She acts as the public face of the company. After having met her, I'm sure you can understand why." Godric smiled at me, and got a tap on the arm from Heidi.

"She's a very pretty woman." I agreed.

"She is," Godric nodded and then said, "My only concern are rumors I've heard about an internal battle. Niall, the CEO and majority shareholder, wants to take the organization in a more charitable direction, while one of his sons wants to put more money into pharmaceutical companies. Niall has a pretty strong hold on things, and as the majority owner the worst thing that could happen is Breandan convinces some of the investors to back him. The Crane Foundation would most likely take a hit, but it would take an awfully big one to bring them to their knees."

"You know an awful lot about the Cranes." Eric arched an eyebrow at Godric.

"You think I would sign my livelihood away to a company I hadn't fully researched?" Godric smirked.

The timer went off on the oven and Heidi put on her oven mitts to extract the pan inside. Godric had made some sort of braised beef with a port wine reduction sauce and spaghetti squash. It was a delicious meal topped with roasted apples and a light vanilla ice cream. By the time we were through eating, I was beyond full. Godric had insisted I try a little bit of everything he made, and had even offered to write up a copy of his recipe for the apples.

"He never does that," Eric leaned and whispered in my ear while Godric and Heidi were absorbed in conversation.

"I guess maybe he likes me," I shrugged and squeezed Eric's hand under the table.

"Everyone had enough?" Heidi's voice chimed in.

"Oh, gosh, yes." I rested my free hand on my stomach. "It was delicious, Godric."

"Thank you," he nodded.

Heidi stood to clear the table and I jumped up after her, offering to help. She gladly accepted, which left the two of us alone while Eric accompanied Godric to get a copy of the recipe. I was a little nervous about being alone with Heidi. As sweet as she was, she was Eric's mother, and I knew her opinion mattered to him just like Gran's opinion mattered to me.

"So, Sookie, what about your family? You haven't said much about them." Heidi said as she began to put away the leftovers.

"Sadly, there isn't a whole lot to tell. My parents were killed in a car accident when I was young. My brother and I were taken in by my Gran, my father's mother. She owns a little farmhouse over in Bon Temps that's been in our family since before Bon Temps was even an official town. My brother, Jason, is three years older than me and works for the Renard Parrish road crew. He 'dates,'" I used air quotes there since I could hardly call what Jason did dating. "But has yet to find the right girl. He's seeing someone now, but I'm sure she'll come to her senses one of these days."

Heidi smiled and said, "You never know. I've lived long enough to understand we don't choose love, love chooses us. Would you have imagined yourself settling down with someone like Eric?"

I thought about it for a moment before answering. "No, I suppose I didn't, but I'm happy we found each other. Your son is a very good man, Heidi."

"Thank you," she nodded appreciatively. "Has Eric talked about his father?"

"No," I shook my head. I'd been meaning to ask, but I figured it was a personal thing that was probably best left to him to discuss when he felt good and ready for it. "I think Eric considers Godric to be his father."

"Yes, I imagine he does. Well, then if Eric hasn't told you about his father, then it's best I leave it alone. It's really his story to share." Heidi looked a bit sheepish over potentially spilling beans Eric obviously wasn't ready to spill yet. "Eric tells me you know Pam?"

I laughed and said, "Yes, I've known Pam for about a year now."

"And she's dating a friend of yours, right?"

"Yes, my old college roommate." I confirmed for her.

We got into a talking about my experiences in college, which led to a discussion about Heidi's experiences in college. She was rehashing a rather rowdy party at her sorority house when Eric and Godric appeared. They had perfect timing, since Heidi and I were just finishing up the dishes at that point. Heidi started a pot of coffee, and we ended up out on the screened in porch they had in the back.

We sat out there and chatted for a while until Heidi began to yawn. All things considered, I thought it went rather well. I liked Heidi and Godric very much, and looked forward to seeing them again. Heidi was the first to hug me goodbye, and suggested we get together for lunch and shopping one day soon.

"I'd like that," I smiled at her when she released me from the hug.

"Good. Have Eric give you my number, and we'll be in touch soon." Heidi promised before moving on to hug her son.

"Sookie, it was lovely to meet you," Godric hugged me as well, and whispered in my ear. "You're the only girl Eric has ever brought home. I see he's chosen wisely."

I was a bit stunned. Was it possible Eric never had a girlfriend before me, or was it just that he'd never cared about any of them enough to introduce them to his parents? I figured I would have to ask on the way home. Honestly, I couldn't believe I hadn't already asked a million questions about the women in his past. Then again, I suppose I didn't really want to know.

Heidi and Godric walked us to the door and waved from the front porch as Eric drove off. I grabbed his hand and kissed the back of it quickly before he had to shift gears again.

"Thank you for bringing me." I smiled at him.

"Of course. It was bound to happen sooner or later."

"Is that the only reason?"

He sighed and said, "No, that's not what I meant. If I didn't want you to meet them, I would have put my mother off. It's not easily done, but I would have done it."

"Godric said I'm the first girl you ever brought home."

"Godric is right."

"I like your parents. I can see a lot of both of them in you. Well, you look like your Mom, but I can see Godric's patience and kindness in you, too." I stalled for a moment, my curiosity about Eric's father getting the best of me. "Eric, if you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to, but your Mom mentioned your father."

"What about him?" Eric's tone was notably harder than usual.

"You never talk about him. Is there a reason for that?"

Eric stared straight ahead, but I could see the changes in his eyes. They got darker, like storm clouds were settling in them. "Yes, there's a reason."

I was quiet then. I'd never heard that tone from him before, and it was a warning I was treading on some seriously thin ice. I mentally slapped myself for bringing it up and ruining what had otherwise been a very good night.

"When my Mom was still in college, she was assigned to work in a group for some project in one of her classes. Her job was mostly to gather research at the library. It was a huge project that counted for a third of their grade. Like me, Mom is very organized and methodical. She scheduled herself accordingly, and spent three hours every Thursday night in the library, copying page after page of necessary research for her group. There was this guy who worked there in the Special Collections department.

"He'd been in one of my Mom's media arts classes her sophomore year. She said he was quiet; never really talked much or bothered anyone. He asked her out on a date once, but she was already seeing someone at the time, so she declined. There had been a string of attacks on campus, and a few girls had been drugged, dragged into the bushes and raped. There were never any witnesses, and the girls never saw the face of their attacker.

"So, Mom was understandably concerned about walking the campus alone at night. Her boyfriend was supposed to pick her up one night, but she waited for a half an hour before giving up. She called his frat house, only to find out he was blitzed on Jager, and in no condition to drive. He could barely even walk, by that point. Mom was about to call another guy friend of hers who lived near the library to see if he'd walk her back to her dorm, but then the guy from Special Collections appeared and offered to walk with her.

"He wasn't a very big guy, according to her. He was tall, about six feet, but he was wiry. She said there was nothing threatening about him at all. She accepted his offer, and they started toward her dorm. He asked a few questions and they made polite small talk. They had just passed the main quad when he started getting real jittery all of a sudden. Mom turned to ask him what was wrong, and the next thing she knew, she was knocked out.

"When she came to, she was in the hospital. She had a concussion, a large bump on the back of her head and a split lip. Back then there was no morning after contraception, and since Mom had been raised a devout Catholic, she wasn't taking birth control. She was raped. Eight months and seventeen days later, I was born." Eric kept his eyes on the road, barely even blinking. His hand grabbed the knob of the gear shifter so tightly, it was shaking just a little.

"Did they catch the guy who did it?" I whispered, not sure of what else to say.

"No, and since Mom didn't see the guy's face, she couldn't say for sure it was the guy who was walking her home. The rapes across campus stopped a little while later when the police arrested someone else, but the guy who walked her home dropped out of school shortly after her pregnancy became public knowledge. It's crazy to think that if it had happened just ten years later, a DNA test would have cleared everything up." Eric shook his head.

"So you don't know who your father is?" I asked gently.

Eric smirked and finally looked at me. He was talking like the detective, and not my boyfriend at this point, but I couldn't really blame him. If what he was suggesting was true (and he had no reason to lie about this), I would probably want to distance myself from it as well.

"I ran my DNA through the national database to see if there were any partial matches. There was a hit that came back to a con serving thirty-three-years for, surprise surprise, felony rape over in Texas. Since Louisiana doesn't have a statute of limitations on rape cases, I made a call to NOPD's cold case unit to see if they would be able to send me the rape kit they had in storage. Unfortunately, the DNA from the kit was too degraded for testing. Back in the early eighties, law enforcement didn't know how to properly preserve the evidence since DNA wasn't something that could be tested like it can today.

"My Mom doesn't know that I know who my father is. I never mentioned it to her. The only person who knows is Pam. When I asked my Mom if she knew anyone by the name of Clint Kurgan was, she hadn't the foggiest idea, and my mother is a horrible liar. It's like her face rejects the words. The only tangible connection between them is me. I'm proof that he raped my mother."

Wow.

"How long have you known about this?"

"I ran the test about two years ago."

"And you haven't told your Mom about any of this?"

"Sookie, my Mom didn't tell me the whole story until I told her I was going to be a cop. That was right around the time forensic science started to be a hot field to get into, and she didn't want me to find out on my own. To be perfectly honest, I don't know if she ever would have told me. My whole life she let me think my father was just some bastard who knocked her up and took off. She never once treated me like I was a burden, even though looking at me has to be really hard on her sometimes. I don't know how she does it."

"Because she loves you, Eric. You shouldn't have to shoulder this alone any more than she did all those years."

"I don't want to hurt her. She's happy. She put the rape behind her as much as she could, and she moved on. I don't want to ruin that for her."

I sighed, and pushed up the armrest that separated us in the front seat. I leaned against his arm and stroked his thigh gently. There really wasn't anything else for me to say. It was his decision. I had no right to pry, much less push him in any particular direction.

"Does this change the way you see us?" Eric asked quietly, his voice snapped back to his regular boyfriend voice.

"No, Eric, of course it doesn't."

"Even though, if we had kids some day, Grandpa would be a rapist?"

"Eric, _Grandpa_, would be that wonderful man who cooked me dinner tonight and gave up one of his recipes. That other man, as far as I'm concerned, was nothing more than a sperm donor. He obviously wasn't the man your Mom chose to be your father, but I think she managed to get the best of him because you are one of the most decent people I've ever met. So unless you're going to tell me you have some sort of hidden Dexter complex where you're a secret vigilante serial killer, we're going to be just fine. In fact, I think I love you more for wanting to protect your mom the way she protected you." I stretched and kissed his jaw.

He breathed a sigh of relief, and when we came to a stoplight, he kissed me for real. Oh, yes, we were definitely going to be just fine.

o.O.o.O.o

A few days later I was making dinner at Eric's apartment for the two of us, when he came home with a big smile on his face, but a nervous glint in his eyes. He kissed me hello, and sampled the white sauce I was working on for our pasta.

"Needs a little more pepper," he said before reaching into the fridge for a beer.

"How was your day, honey?" I said in my best 1950's housewife tone.

Eric took a big swig of his beer before setting down the bottle. "We may have had a break in the Pelt case today. I was going over the evidence again. The paper Debbie supposedly wrote her suicide note on was the back of a flier for an underground fight in Las Vegas. We know she was there because of Alcide and Maria-Starr, but we don't know why, exactly, she was there. Pam's going to be flying up there to do some digging around. I would go, but I have a case going to trial I have to be here for."

"Well, at the risk of sounding selfish, I'm glad you're not leaving."

"Same here, although it might be easier for me to get to some of the guys involved with that stuff, since I'm the right size and build to be an interested party."

"Yeah, I don't like the idea of you going undercover." I shook my head. "I've seen Donnie Brasco and enough Law and Order to know what happens."

"I wouldn't be going undercover."

"But you wouldn't be flashing your badge around either."

"No, no, I definitely wouldn't be doing that."

"So who's going as backup for Pam?"

"She'll be dealing with locals, mostly, but Dawson offered to take my place."

"Good. I don't like the idea of her going alone. If these people are responsible for Debbie's death, I don't really want either of you near them. You've seen Casino. You know what goes on in the desert." I narrowed my eyes at him, when he laughed.

"Sookie, it's not really like that."

"Oh no? Well, I don't really want you taking the chance. Finding Debbie's killer isn't really worth your own life, Eric."

"It's part of the job, lover."

"Don't give me that horseshit." I glared at him.

"Sookie, my job is to find out the truth! A woman is dead, and I have to find out why."

I sighed and turned my back on him. "I don't like this."

"Sookie, it's going to be fine. Pam is going to be perfectly safe. I promise you that."

"You can't promise something like that, Eric. You don't know what's going to happen, or who Pam might cross up. All it takes is her asking one wrong person one wrong question, and..." I braced myself against the counter, my back still turned to him.

"Sookie, some whack job with a gun could walk into Merlotte's any night of the week and hold you up at gunpoint. How many times are you the last person on the premises, huh? You could be walking to your car and someone could just come along and toss you in the back of a van. There would be no witnesses, and no rime or reason for the crime. Shit happens."

"But I don't invite it into my life, Eric! You're chasing danger here. I know you're as safe as you can possibly be, but me worrying won't save your life if you get shot. And before you say it, I don't think I'm being unreasonable."

Eric turned me around so we were face to face. "Sookie, I'm not going anywhere. I'm right here. I can't change the fact that my job is dangerous sometimes. You've known this from the beginning. If you're changing your mind-"

"I'm not changing my mind," I said quickly. I really wasn't. "I just don't want anything bad to happen to you."

Eric wrapped me in a hug and kissed the top of my head. "I don't either, Sookie. Do you trust me?"

I looked up at him and said, "Yes, of course I trust you. It's everyone else I'm iffy about."

"Have I ever told you how pretty you are when you pout?" Eric smiled at me.

"I'm not pouting!" I glared at him, and he laughed quietly.

"You are a little bit."

"Am not." I pulled away from him and went back to my sauce. "Dinner's almost ready."

"Sookie, are you really going to be mad at me for the rest of the night?"

"Ugh, Eric, I'm not mad at you. I'm mad that you have to be in the position at all. I'm concerned for your safety, and no amount of you promising me you're going to be safe is going to change it. I just need to get used to it. I'll be fine."

He turned me around again and kissed me sweetly. "I love you, Sookie."

"I know you do. I love you, too." I wrapped my arms around him and took a deep breath.

His smell calmed my nerves a little. He left me long enough to go get changed. We were just sitting down to eat when his phone rang. I groaned internally. I really didn't want him to get called away before he got a chance to eat. We hadn't seen each other since the night we had dinner with his parents. I missed him. Going home alone was getting harder and harder to do.

"Northman," he answered his phone and listened to whomever was on the other end of the line. "And you're 100 percent sure? Okay. Okay, great. Yes, please. You can email or fax it. Email is better. Great. Thanks. You, too."

"Who was that?"

"A handwriting analyst. We compared the handwriting on Debbie's suicide note to a sample of Debbie's handwriting her sister was able to give us. The handwriting is close, but no cigar. It's a forgery." Eric was beaming.

I, on the other hand, felt my heart sink. Sooner or later, my boyfriend was going to end up in Las Vegas, I just knew it.

* * *

Hmmm...so, if Debbie's death wasn't a suicide, whodunit? *taps chin* Guess you'll have to wait and find out. Anyone else want to pet Eric right about now? I know I do. Thanks for reading!


	8. How to Disappear Completely

Chapter 8: How to Disappear Completely

**EPOV**

I wasn't quite sure what to make of Sookie's small outburst of what she called 'concern' for my safety. It's not that I didn't believe she was worried. I heard it from my mother all the time. Really, it was nice to know she worried, that _anyone_ worried. I'd revealed a pretty big secret to Sookie in telling her about my birth father, but she just batted that away like it was no big deal. She didn't look at me any differently for it, which I took to be a sign of some sort.

I figured if she could accept my less than desirable genetic makeup, then it would just be a matter of time before she really got okay with my job. I hadn't been naïve enough to assume it would be full acceptance. I knew she would never ask me to quit, but I started thinking about the future and what it would be like if we were married and had children. Would it be fair to them to put myself in a position where I was potentially in a life threatening situation every time I left the house?

I didn't want Sookie to end up a widow because of me, and I didn't want my kids to grow up fatherless. I shook myself when I realized the things I was thinking. I was jumping the gun big time. Sookie and I hadn't even talked about living together, and there I was, thinking about being her husband and fathering her children. I knew she wanted kids. She hadn't said it out loud, but I saw it in her face every time we went to Wal-Mart and she saw some cute baby clothes she'd fawn all over.

The future was definitely on my mind, and everywhere I saw myself over the course of my life, I saw Sookie with me. I ended up having a long talk with Godric about it. He had this ethereal calm about him that radiated out of his body. There were times when he almost took on the zen composure of a Buddhist monk, or a preacher of some sort. He always had an answer for every question I ever asked, and when I told him what I was thinking in regards to Sookie, it was no different.

"I'm paraphrasing here, my son, but true intimacy doesn't have a holding period. For some couples, it only takes hours or days to learn what it might take others years to figure out. It's all a relative thing. If it feels right, and you're sure she's the one you want, then all of this is just a formality. Don't let yourself get caught up in what society might think. They aren't you. They aren't inside your relationship. The questions you have are best answered by two people; the _only_ two people that matter." Godric advised.

So, after my first day of testifying in a rather complicated murder-for-hire case, I was elated to find Sookie waiting for me at my apartment. Even better, she was waiting for me in my bed. Hell, I wasn't even really thinking of it as _my_ bed anymore. She was staying over more often than not, not that I was complaining. On my nights off I'd go over to her place. She'd given me a key to her house as well. We were evenly matched, but I needed to know if we were on the same page.

I reached up to loosen my tie while Sookie rolled onto her back to reveal she was asleep and very naked. I checked and stowed my weapon and badge in their usual place, and quickly got undressed. I knew she'd worked the lunch shift. She was off the following day. I had to be in court at ten. The courthouse was on the other side of town. With morning traffic, that meant I had to leave no later than nine thirty. We could easily be up until the wee hours of morning and I'd still get plenty of sleep.

I put my phone on silent. I needed to get my head out of work mode, and the best way to do that was to give my girlfriend her favorite wake up call. I climbed into bed beside her, and disappeared under the covers. Her legs were warm and parted slightly. Sookie often slept with her legs crossed at her ankles, which I found odd. Once I got her legs positioned the way I wanted them, I shifted my body so I was hovering over her center. I cheated a glance up at her face, and smiled devilishly when I saw she was still asleep. Perfect.

I kissed her inner thighs and slowly worked my way up. She shifted once or twice, but she didn't make a sound until I got to her center. It took a few long licks before I got a response out of her. The moan that escaped was low and long, and it made me want to skip over this part and just be inside her already. But then I peeked up at her face again to see she was still asleep.

I teased her with my tongue, putting all of my experience with her body to work. I knew what little tricks to do to get the biggest reaction from her, and I knew she was awake when I felt her hands slide into my hair. I looked up to see her smiling down at me with a dreamy expression on her face. Her hips were writhing and I knew she was close to her orgasm. I moved up her body, and it was obvious she was expecting me to fuck her then.

Instead, I kissed her, and let my fingers slide inside her. Her hips rose to meet my thrusts. I knew exactly where that sweet spot was inside her, and I moved my fingers to find it. She cried out between kisses, squeezing her legs together when her muscles started to spasm.

"Oh, fuck, Eric, don't stop," she gasped against my lips, holding onto my wrist.

"Don't worry, sweetheart, I have no intention of stopping," I said, and rubbed harder. I wasn't even touching her clit at that point, but it didn't matter.

She screamed when she came, her entire body thrashing underneath me. Her scream dissolved into giggles, which was a reaction I'd never seen from her before, but I knew was common when women had very powerful orgasms. Hey, I'd done research on the topic.

"Are you okay?" I asked her when her giggles hadn't subsided a minute later.

"What did you do to me?" she asked with starry eyes.

"I think I found your g-spot," I smirked.

Sookie closed her eyes with a huge smile on her face. "That was amazing."

"Yes, it was." I had no idea how to go about explaining how awesome it was to watch her lose control like that, but it was definitely a nice reward for my efforts.

I put my hand between her very wet thighs, and the second I touched her, she shivered. Her gaze held mine and I slid my fingers inside her again. She bit her bottom lip, and within seconds, she was clutching the sheets and gasping for air. Only before she could come, I replaced my fingers with my cock. Her hips bucked against me, and a fast and hard pace was set. I got up on my knees and held her hips up so most of her weight was resting on her shoulders.

Her hands flew up to grab at the headboard, which was once again banging against the wall. She squirmed and moaned, pleading with me to fuck her faster. The clamping of her muscles pulling me over the edge with her, and with one last, almost brutally hard thrust, I came as well. I dropped her on the bed and fell beside her.

"I can't feel my legs." Sookie gasped, then started to laugh. "Holy fuck, Northman."

"It felt like a religious experience to me, too." I laughed and turned my face toward hers.

Sookie rolled into my side and wrapped herself around me. "I love you."

"I love you, too. When you get your land legs back, I think we need a shower." I ran my fingers up and down her back.

"No," she said decisively. "No, I think we need to call for takeout and then do that again."

Who was I to argue with logic like that?

o.O.o.O.o

We spent the evening just as we requested, and just to give those assholes at work something to walk about, I walked in the next whistling a happy tune. I had a conference call scheduled with Pam for later that afternoon after I got out of court. The trial was taking longer than I thought it would. I figured it would have been wrapped up already, but at the last minute the ADA, Portia Bellefleur, decided to add a few extra character witnesses. I was sticking around in case any new information came to light and I needed to be called again.

I sat at my desk and started my computer. I had a few emails in regards to various cases, with lab results and things that needed to be indexed into the files they belonged to. The good thing about Pam being out of town was a slight reprieve from being sent out on new cases. I was glad for the break, since there was plenty of work in on-going investigations that needed to be done.

Like talking to the family of Arlene Fowler, the woman who had died in the fire a while back. We still didn't have the smoking gun that connected her soon-to-be ex-husband to the fire itself. There was plenty of circumstantial evidence, and just about everyone we talked to insisted it was Rene. Unfortunately, insistence and an abusive history wasn't enough to get a conviction. So until we found a piece of evidence, or a witness, that put him there the night of the fire, we had no choice but to let him go free.

I spent an hour or two at court, watching the proceedings. I checked in with Portia to see how she thought things were going. She seemed confident a conviction wasn't too far away. I got back to the precinct just in time for the conference call in the Bat Cave. Stan was taking a larger interest in this case on account of Debbie being a city official's daughter.

"Pam, what's the word?" Stan asked once we got Pam on the phone.

"I went to the gym Maria-Starr goes to with her daughter. I did see a man there that fit the description of the guy she saw the victim with. As stated, he's about six foot six, bald, very muscular and has purple eyes. I got close enough to know they're really that color, and not a result of contacts. He has no tattoos, but there is a scar in the lower right quadrant of his abdomen, suggesting he had his appendix removed at some point. Subject's name is Quinn. With a little flirting, I was able to ascertain his full name is John Quinn, but everyone calls him by his surname.

"I was also able to get footage of the fight listed on the flier. It was posted on Youtube, of all places, and taken by someone's cell phone. We can subpoena Youtube for information on the user, if it becomes necessary. I'm emailing Eric a link to the fight right now. Debbie Pelt can clearly be seen in the crowd at the fight, standing in Quinn's corner. When I asked Quinn if he had a girlfriend, he clammed up and eluded to being single.

"Quinn also fights under the name of 'Tiger,' due to his freakishly large hands. I swear they're _bigger_ than Tiger paws. He also made some disgusting joke about being a tiger in the sack that nearly got him a knee in his danglers. Quinn did, however, invite me to watch his next training session, so hopefully I can get more information then. Dawson has been surveiling all of this. We have audio and video of my conversation with Quinn, as well as a few other spectators from the fight we were able to locate at the gym." Pam informed us.

"That's good work, Pam," Stan praised.

"I know." Pam, of course, didn't need Stan kissing her ass. She knew she was the shit. As long as it was reflected in her rank and pay, she didn't care if Stan hired a fucking singing quartet and a marching band to let everyone know. "I'm getting the impression there was an awful lot about Debbie Pelt's life she didn't share with her family. Her sister didn't seem to be at all aware of Debbie's relationship with Quinn, and she was the first to outright object to the idea that Debbie might be on the wild side."

"Maybe she was trying to cover for her sister," I suggested. "Their parents were sitting right there. No one wants to speak ill of the dead. It's easier for the Pelts to think Debbie was an innocent victim in all this."

"Hold up here, guys, Debbie _is_ still a victim, regardless of how she lived her life. Until we can put a needle in someone's hands, I think it's best we work this like any other homicide. Eric, I need you to pay a visit to Ludwig and see if we can get the cause of death changed to undetermined." Stan sighed and sat back in his chair.

We went over some of the evidence and came up with a list of people for me to talk to here in Shreveport while Pam was talking to people in Las Vegas. After we got off the conference call, I headed back to my desk to make a few phone calls. I checked in with the M.E.'s office to make sure Ludwig was in before taking a trip down there to talk to her.

After a brief conversation with Ludwig, and sharing the other evidence we collected she opted to change her ruling from suicide to undetermined. By the time I got out of Ludwig's office, it was after seven. I was wiped, and ready to drop. There was a text message from Sookie waiting for me when I got out of the office.

_Waitress called in sick. Told Sam I'd close for him. Meet me at my place later? Love you xoxo and a few other dirty things ;)_

I sent her a text back, telling her I'd be there when she got home. A nasty thunderstorm rolled in just after nine. Merlotte's closed at eleven during the week, which meant Sookie would be home about midnight. I had some dinner and took a nap for an hour before heading over to Bon Temps to wait for her.

We really needed to reconsider living together. I'd thought maybe it was too soon, but the things Godric had said to me about relationships kept rattling around in my brain. It felt right, asking her to move in with me. I didn't care if that meant moving out of my apartment, or her moving into my place. I just wanted us to be in the _same_ place.

The rain hadn't started in Bon Temps yet when I got there, but I could smell it in the air. The crickets that were usually serenading anyone who would listen were dead silent. I could hear thunder in the distance, and the breeze had picked up with a cool edge to it. Rain was definitely on the way. I parked at the back of Sookie's house and let myself in through the back door.

The house was dark except for the light she almost always kept on in the dining room since it was on a dimmer switch. After making sure all of her windows were closed and locked, I turned on the air conditioning and stretched out on the couch. The slight hum of the air conditioning, coupled with the steady tapping of raindrops on the window nearby, I drifted off easily.

I had that dream again where I found Sookie's body in the woods, and it had me sitting bolt upright in a cold sweat. I looked at the digital clock across the room. It was after two AM. I yawned and rolled off the couch to go get in bed with Sookie. If I was in a deep sleep, it was entirely possible she'd tried to wake me to no avail.

Only, when I got to her room, her bed was still made. I ran across the house to the guest bedroom closer to the driveway, and my car was the only one outside. I called her cell and got no answer. Then I tried Merlotte's, and that was also a dead end. Horrible scenes of fiery car crashes played through my mind. Merlotte's was only ten minutes away, but statistically, it was more likely a person would get into a fatal accident within five miles of their home than they would on some back country road they'd never driven before. Ironic, huh?

I tried Sookie's cell again, and when there was no answer I decided to go looking for her. I didn't have a number to call Sam at home. Instead, I called Amelia, thinking maybe she'd heard from Sookie, but that was also useless. I got in the car and headed toward Merlotte's. Ran poured down. Thunder boomed. Lightning lit up the sky in flashes.

When I got to Merlotte's Sookie's car was still there. The driver's side door was open. Her purse was on the ground. My car was barely in park when I ran to see if she was inside. I was hoping she'd just smacked her head on the car as she was getting in. A concussion was preferable to the alternative.

Not only was her purse on the ground, but so was her cell phone. Her car keys were still in the door. There was no trace of Sookie anywhere. She was gone.

* * *

Dun-duuun-duuuuuuuuuuunnnn. Yes, I'm the devil for this nasty cliffhanger, but I'm writing chapter 11 as we speak. Besides, you knew this was coming. Any guesses on who has her? Or did Sookie go off on her own? *taps chin* Speculation is always welcome. Thanks for reading!


	9. Bad Things

Just a quick note: in my head, Gran is played by Kathy Bates. It will help significantly if you have that image in your head while reading this chapter. That is all.

* * *

Chapter 9: Bad Things

**SPOV**

Closing at Merlotte's was a regular thing for me. I was one of two waitresses Sam trusted to do it right, so when Holly called in sick, I was his only other option. I didn't mind it. I had nothing to do at home but wait for Eric to get there, and I was in need of the extra cash. Padding my bank account couldn't hurt. I got into the restaurant at about half way through the dinner shift.

It wasn't a real busy night, considering it was the middle of the week and the weather was looking pretty iffy. The restaurant emptied out early with everyone wanting to get home before the storm exploded. By nine thirty, the place was a ghost town. Winds had picked up and were whipping tree branches in every which direction. I went outside to close my car windows in case I wasn't done closing before the rain started.

I was crouched in the front seat, straining to close the passenger's side when a van pulled into the parking lot. I looked over my shoulder, surprised to see Quinn's sister, Frannie, hopping out of the van. Frannie and I had gotten along okay when I was dating Quinn. We weren't what I would call friends, but we were civil for Quinn's sake.

I knew she didn't really like the fact that I was so opposed to Quinn being involved in the underground fighting stuff. It seemed extremely dangerous, and I wasn't really interested in dating someone who could get themselves killed for nothing. Kind of ironic I ended up dating Eric, I know, but it wasn't the same thing.

"Hey, Frannie, how are you?" I was as friendly as I could be.

"I've been pretty good, all things considered," her hands were stuffed in her pockets.

"Is Quinn okay?"

She snorted and asked, "What do you care? You broke up with him, remember?"

I sighed and said, "Frannie did you really come here to get into all that again?"

"No, actually, I didn't. I came here because Debbie Pelt is dead and it's all your fault." Frannie glared at me with pure hatred in her eyes.

"What?" To say I was shocked would be an understatement. "How in the world do you figure? And how do you even know Debbie?"

"She was dating Quinn. She said you stole her boyfriend. Doesn't surprise me."

"Okay, Frannie, you know what? Debbie was a little on the crazy side, and you don't know what the hell you're talking about. I'm going inside." I turned around to close my car, and felt a sharp pain on the back of my head.

The next thing I knew, everything was black.

* * *

**EPOV**

I sat at one of the tables inside Merlotte's and watched the pathetic excuse for a local police department speculate and drink coffee. I was furious. I wanted to take over, but Bon Temps wasn't my jurisdiction. All I could do was sit there and start putting plans together in my head. I would investigate on my own time. Fuck, I'd put in for a leave of absence at work until I found Sookie.

We didn't even know if there had been a struggle, thanks to the rain. Any trace evidence was washed away. I kept replaying the argument Sookie and I had in my kitchen the week before. I'd said something about her being held at gunpoint at Merlotte's not really thinking it would ever happen. I had my head in my hands when Adele came stomping in with Jason and Amy trailing right behind her.

"Bud Dearborn, do you mind telling me just what the heck you're doing in here having a coffee klatch when my Sookie's gone missing?" Adele demanded. I'll admit, I perked up.

"Now Adele-"

"That's Mrs. Stackhouse to you," she stared him down like he was a naughty five-year-old.

"Mrs. Stackhouse, right now we're cataloging the evidence." Bud said lamely.

"What evidence?" Adele looked over to the pool table where there were a few evidence bags piled up. "Do you really think the answer to who took Sookie can be found by studying her compact?"

"Mrs. Stackhouse, there's protocol we have to follow." Kenya, one of the deputies, made the mistake of speaking up.

"My left foot! All I see are a bunch of so-called officers standing around drinking Sam's coffee. Unless, of course, you already know where my Sookie is and she's being brought back here?"

"Not yet, Mrs. Stackhouse. We're looking for her." Bud assured her, although I had yet to see them scrutinize anything more seriously than they would a blueberry muffin.

"And where are you looking for her, exactly, the bottom of your coffee cup?" Adele continued to glare. It was then that she noticed me sitting on the other side of the room with an amused look on my face. "Eric! Glory be, what are you doing here?"

"Detective Northman was the one to call it in." Bud offered.

"Well thank you, Bud. I wasn't aware Eric lost the ability to speak. Maybe, if you're not too busy following protocol, you could find that for him, too." Adele was on fire.

Bud looked offended, but I couldn't fault Adele for her frustration. She made her way over to where I was sitting, and took the seat across from me Jason and Amy hung back, talking to Bud and Kenya, while I did what I could to calm Adele down a little.

"So you're the one who realized Sookie was missing?"

"Yes, ma'am," I nodded.

"_You_ may call me Adele." Adele said loud enough for Bud Dearborn to roll his eyes on the other side of the room. "Now tell me what happened."

"Well, Adele, I was waiting for Sookie at her house. I fell asleep on the couch. When I woke up a little after two, I thought maybe she'd gone to bed without me. So I got up to go to bed, but she wasn't there. I called her cell and the bar, and got no answer. With the weather being so bad, I was worried she'd been in an accident on the way home. So I decided to come up here and check it out and see if I spotted her anywhere along the way. When I got here, her driver's side door was wide open. Her keys were still in the lock and her purse and cell phone where on the ground. The door to the restaurant was unlocked and the lights were still on. I called the local police, and they've been following protocol-"

"You mean having ladies tea." Adele interjected.

"They're doing... well, they could be doing more, but I can't interfere with their investigation. As far as they're concerned, I'm a suspect."

"A what?" Adele was clearly outraged.

I sighed and explained the statistics on abductions. Usually, a person was taken by someone they knew, whether it was a lover, estranged significant other, parent, friend or other family member. If, and I hated to even think the possibility, but _if_ Sookie was dead, I was the primary suspect. It was ridiculous, but that's the way it was.

"Eric, I know you would _never_..." Adele trailed off. "This is nonsense. There has to be something we can do besides sit here like bumps on a log."

"Adele, we don't even know where to begin looking, at this point. Can you think of anyone that might want to hurt Sookie? Does she have any enemies?"

"Detective, please don't question her." Bud Dearborn picked the wrong moment to do his job.

"Pipe down, sonny, I'm having a chat with my future grandson-in-law, and you're officially off the reservation if you think for one second Eric would harm a hair on Sookie's head." Adele spoke vehemently. It was easy to see where Sookie had gotten her fire from.

I managed to get everyone to sit down together to pool as much information about Sookie as I could. Every person she ever met was mentioned. Every argument she ever had was rehashed. Because of her spitfire attitude, there were a few people who weren't really fans of hers, but the only person anyone considered to be an enemy was Debbie Pelt. I didn't particularly want to hear about it, but I sat through the list of Sookie's ex-boyfriends that was a little longer than she had led me to believe.

Her boss sat across from me, looking equally uncomfortable as Gran and Jason dropped names. After a while, I couldn't take anymore, and had to excuse myself to get some air. I walked outside to find the parking lot being photographed. There were divets in the gravel that suggested tired had spun before peeling out of the parking lot, but there was no way of knowing how long they'd been there. Could have been hours or weeks.

I walked around to the side of the building and stared up at the sky. For the first time since I found my father in the DNA database, I broke down.

* * *

**SPOV**

My head was killing me. Everything was dark and it took me a moment to figure out I was blindfolded. I moaned, and figured out I was gagged as well. The pain in my head was the only thing to keep me from feeling like I was floating away. Well, that, and my wrists were bound to what felt like a headboard.

"Are you awake, Sookie?" An unfamiliar voice mocked me. "Does your head hurt? Are you in pain?"

I made a small noise to acknowledge who was speaking to me and it got me slapped across the face. I moaned again and let my head fall back against a stack of pillows.

"Good. Sit tight. You're going to be here a while." The voice was venomous.

There were heavy footsteps and then a door slammed. I was alone.

* * *

**EPOV**

Sookie had dated Quinn. Quinn had dated Debbie. There was a link. Was all of this because I was poking around in Debbie's death? Obviously whomever had been involved had wanted it to be believed Debbie had taken her own life. More and more I was becoming convinced that wasn't true.

"Northman, go home." Stan ordered as he walked past my desk.

"Can't do that, Stan."

"I wasn't asking you, I'm telling you. You look like shit, and you were sitting at that same spot when I left last night. Get the hell out of my precinct and don't even think about setting foot in here until you've gotten eight hours, eaten something, showered and shaved that roadkill off your face." Stan marched into the Bat Cave and closed the door.

I sighed, shut down my computer and packed up my files. I knew he was right. I was exhausted. I hadn't slept for more than fifteen minutes at a time since Sookie disappeared three days before. I was waiting for the elevator when there was the arrival ding. The doors opened to reveal Pam inside.

"Get your ass in here." Pam held the doors open for me.

I got on the elevator and Pam pushed the button for the ground floor. "Welcome back, Pam."

"Yeah, yeah, you look like shit."

"Seems to be the consensus."

"What's the word on Sookie?"

"There isn't one. There has been no communication from her abductors."

"What about Quinn?"

"What about him?"

"He's in town. His mother has been battling cancer for the last three years. He started fighting right around the time the bills started piling up. It seems there's a lot of money to be made in those fights. The last one he was in, the one Debbie attended, he won $25,000. Before that, he won another that was $15,000. It's a very lucrative business if you don't mind having your ass kicked." Pam explained as the doors opened.

"Where is he now?"

"I don't think that matters much since Stan gave you the order to go home and unfuck yourself."

"Pam..."

"He's right, Eric. You're a zombie, for fuck's sake. I understand why, but you're no good to any of us when you're not functioning right. So go home, shower and then crash. I'll keep an eye on things. If anything big pops, I'll let you know." Pam promised me.

"I'm starving. Want to get breakfast?" I asked her.

"Thought you'd never ask." Pam walked through the front doors of the precinct with a smirk on her face.

* * *

**SPOV**

I didn't want to eat whatever it was they were feeding me, but I didn't have a whole lot of choice in the matter. I was tied to the bed and blindfolded. I had no idea how much time had passed, and every time they fed me, I fell asleep shortly afterward. My guess was, they were drugging the food. I was rarely spoken to, which was just fine by me. I didn't really have much to say anyway. I didn't have anything I could trade to get out of the situation I was in. Even if a ransom was demanded, I had no idea who would pay it. Gran, of course, would try to get the money together but I knew she just wouldn't have it. I was stuck right where I was until they decided to let me go, I was rescued, or they killed me.

The door opened and the same heavy footsteps I'd become accustomed to clomped along the floor. My blindfold was yanked up and my eyes exploded in color and light. My headache returned full force. I was so used to the darkness the blindfold provided that light was a terrible shock to my system. It took a few minutes for my eyes to focus again.

Sitting at the side of the bed in a rickety folding chair was one of my captors. I was pretty sure it was a she based on the size of the person sitting there. She was thin and dressed in black from head to toe. A ski mask kept me from seeing her face, and she even had a pair of goggles on to keep me from seeing what color her eyes were. The only visible feature was her mouth, which was set in a thin, angry line. I felt like I was trapped in a really bad Syfy movie.

"Morning, Princess," the woman cooed at me, then leaned forward and removed my gag. "How's that head of yours."

"Hurts," I rasped.

"I almost feel sorry for you."

"Why?"

"Why are you here, or why don't I feel sorry for you? Actually, the answer to those questions happens to be the same. You're the whore who broke up Debbie and Alcide. If you would have just left him alone, they could have been happy. Debbie suffered _every day_ they weren't together. And now that you're in love, you're going to find out how it feels to be Debbie. You're going to pay for what you did to her." The voice was seething with rage.

I tried to search my memory for who's voice it was I was hearing. My mind came up blank. Alcide hadn't left Debbie for me. Whomever I was dealing with had things all wrong. Then again, Debbie was a nutter. It wasn't too hard to believe the people she kept company with were crazy as well. I studied the figure in front of me. I paid close attention while she talked. Her voice had been raspy with anger, or maybe that was just the way she always talked.

If she was disguising her voice, it was hard to tell. I noticed a small, dark birthmark under her bottom lip on the left side. A small patch of skin became visible on her right arm. There were no visible marks there. I recalled Frannie's face, but didn't remember ever seeing a birthmark near her mouth. Besides, Frannie's voice was too high to belong to the person sitting in front of me.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, which just got me a throaty, evil laugh.

"No you're not, but you will be," the woman stormed out of the room and came back moments later with what looked like apple juice. "Drink it."

I sniffed the glass she'd shoved under my nose. Apple juice, no doubt laced with something. "Bathroom?"

"Sorry, Princess, can't do that. Now drink."

* * *

**EPOV**

Pam and I sat on the other side of the two way mirror, observing as Andy Bellefleur and Bud Dearborn questioned John Quinn. I hated him the second I saw him. It was obvious he wasn't very bright, just as it was obvious that even though his size was intimidating, he wasn't capable of hurting anyone. How he was such a successful fighter was beyond me. When he was told Sookie had been kidnapped, he looked positively panic-stricken.

"Oh, God, why would anyone want to hurt Sookie?" Quinn shook his bulbous bald head. "I know she got a little mouthy sometimes, but I always thought her sass was cute. I liked that she put me in my place."

"Douche." Pam muttered next to me. Did I ever mention Pam made a great wing man?

"How long were you and Sookie an item?" Bud asked.

"Uh, about nine weeks, I guess? I mean, we flirted and hung out a little before that. I've known her for years, but we didn't start dating until last fall. I was home after a business trip in Vegas, and one thing lead to another. We started seeing each other."

"Yeah, after Sookie got drunk off her ass at the Halloween party." Pam muttered, then remembered who was standing next to her. "Sorry."

"And who ended the relationship?"

"Sookie did. She uh, she said she didn't want to be someone's second choice, and she didn't like what I was doing in Vegas."

"The fighting, you mean?"

"Yeah, the fighting," Quinn gave a soft smile. "She was worried about me. She said she didn't want me getting mixed up with a bad crowd, that there had to be a better way to earn money than by getting my ass kicked every couple of weeks."

"But you chose the fights?"

"Nah, I didn't really have a choice. Mom's sick. Insurance doesn't want to cover all the costs of someone taking care of her, so my sister, Frannie, dropped out of college to be her full-time nurse. Sookie and I split up, which broke my heart, but I have to take care of Mom."

I stopped hating Quinn a little after that. Truth was, if it were my mother, I'd do the same damn thing.

"How did you meet Debbie?" Bud asked.

"I was putting gas in my truck at some gas station. She pulled in and asked for directions on how to get up to Nellis. Said she was looking for a friend of hers. I didn't know what Nellis was, so I couldn't help her. But since I had GPS in my truck, I offered to take her up there if she had an address."

Pam and I exchanged looks. Quinn had been with Debbie when she went to go see Alcide and Maria-Starr. Pam rapped on the window, and Bud came into the little office we were watching from.

"Why are you questioning him in the Pelt case?" Pam demanded.

"The two are linked, aren't they?"

"We don't know that, and honestly, if he's going to talk about Debbie, we'd rather he do it at our house, you know, back in the twenty-first century." Pam looked around in distaste.

Bud got as close to snarling as he could get. "We're all out of questions. We'll cut him loose, but tell him Shreveport PD is interested in meeting with him."

"I'll do you one better," I rolled my eyes, fed up with the incompetence of the Bon Temps police department. I walked into their interrogation room and stood against the wall. "Mr. Quinn, I'm detective Northman with the Shreveport police. We have some questions we want to ask you about Debbie. Would you be able to come back to the station with us?"

"Yeah, sure. I thought Debbie offed herself?" Quinn scratched his head. His tone didn't suggest he'd been all that upset by the loss.

"I'd rather we discuss that back at the station, if you don't mind."

Andy gave me his best death glare, but I was all out of comebacks and patience for the local idiots. It was obvious they weren't equipped to deal with anything more serious than an unpaid parking ticket, or maybe a kitten in a tree.

"Listen, Detective, I'll tell you anything you want to know, but if you want to know more about Debbie, you really should talk to her sister. Sandra knows everything there is to know about her." Quinn volunteered.

* * *

**SPOV**

I didn't even feel like I was connected to my body anymore. I was numb, filthy and perpetually exhausted. Just lifting my head took more energy than I could have imagined. My arms were numb from being tied for so long. I tried to keep track of the time, but it was next to impossible to do with all of the drugs they were pushing on me.

I had strange dreams, and tried to put myself back on the boat in Lake Amistad. I replayed my days with Eric over and over again, and prayed it wouldn't be long before I was seeing his face again for real. I tried not to think about how worried my Gran was, since she surely knew I was missing. I didn't want Sam feeling guilty about this, since it wasn't his fault. I'd closed the restaurant hundreds of times without incident in the past.

Bon Temps was generally a safe place to live. No one would have predicted I would have been kidnapped. Maybe it would happen to someone like Dawn, who slept around a lot and got mixed up with bikers and the like, but comparatively speaking, I was a good girl. I'd had my share of wild moments, but I still made sure to get to my Gran's every week for supper. I checked in on her every couple of days. I returned my library books on time. I left out food for stray animals every now and again. I tried to treat people the way I wanted to be treated, even though my tongue got a little sharp sometimes.

As far as I could tell, I'd done absolutely nothing to Debbie Pelt, but that didn't seem to matter. Whoever was holding me hostage didn't seem to agree with that. Every day I learned something new about Debbie Pelt, and it became clear to me whoever it was that took me had been very attached to Debbie.

Not that I wished what I was going through on someone else, but I wondered why Alcide or his wife hadn't been taken. Alcide and I didn't last, and it wasn't as if he'd left me so he could go back to Debbie. He'd left me to marry another woman. A woman he had a child with. Debbie was never going to be that woman in Alcide's life. It just didn't make any sense. There had to be something I was missing.

And I wondered how Frannie was involved in all of this. I was guessing she was the bait, seeing as how I probably wouldn't have let my guard down for a stranger, she was probably a good choice of random people to distract me. Yet, I hadn't heard a peep out of her since I got cracked on the head.

I figured out there was a second woman involved. Like the first, she was always dressed in black from head to toe with ski goggles on so I couldn't see her face. I had just nodded off when the door to my room burst open. One of my captors appeared with a scrub brush, a bucket of water and a bottle of bleach.

"You're dirty, Princess. Time for your bath." A barely visible twisted smile appeared under the ski mask and I bit back the urge to scream.

_Eric, where are you_?, I shouted in my mind instead.

* * *

The only thing I will tell you about Sookie's abduction is that she will _not_ be sexually assaulted. No, Sookie's captors have plenty of other ways to torture her. The next couple of chapters are going to cut back and forth, since what's happening with Sookie doesn't really give me enough for a full chapter, but I don't want to leave her out. So, hopefully you don't mind the back and forth. Thanks for reading!


	10. Here Without You

Okay, this chapter is a little choppy, but it's the way it came out. It'll all make sense, but it just cuts strangely. Also, you guys crack me up with the theories that Bill is somehow involved in all this.

* * *

Chapter 10: Here Without You

**SPOV**

My skin felt like it was on fire. Even though the bleach had been diluted, it still burned when they ground it into my skin with that scrub brush. At least they let my arms down for a little while. They used the most painful methods possible to get the circulation into them, and when they ordered me off the bed, I fell. My legs wobbled, as did the rest of my muscles. I'd been laying still for too long.

After my 'bath,' they shot me up with more drugs and I passed out. I don't know how long I was out for before I came to. With the window boarded up, I couldn't see where I was. For all I knew, I was somewhere in Bon Temps or near a backwater bayou. The guessing drove me crazy, so I kept on replaying the time at Lake Amistad. Hell, reliving my high school years was better.

* * *

**EPOV**

Pam and I were piecing together what we thought was a time line of events. The cases were linked, we were sure of it. Somehow, Sookie's disappearance was connected to Debbie's suicide. Quinn and Alcide were links between them. Alcide and Maria-Starr's alibis were checked out and cleared by their neighbors. I didn't want to get on a plane for Las Vegas, but I didn't feel like I had much of a choice in the matter. I needed to see a few things for myself, and I thought maybe there was a chance I might be able to get a little information about the fights if I posed as someone interested in getting involved.

In talking with Quinn, I learned his hook up in the underground was a woman by the name of Sophie-Anne LeClerq. Her father had been a boxer who fought some of the greats. She grew up to be a great promoter, and had met some of the best competitors to ever enter the ring. According to Quinn, if you wanted to get into professional fighting, Sophie-Anne was the one you wanted to see. So, that's exactly what I did.

I managed to get a meeting with Sophie-Anne under the guise of wanting to join her ranks. We didn't last more than five minutes in the meeting before Sophie-Anne figured us out. "Detectives, next time you want to play undercover heroes, try to remember you're on television regularly."

Pam smirked and asked, "What can you tell us about John Quinn?"

"The Tiger," Sophie-Anne grinned and leaned back in her chair. "He's been very profitable for my business. He's got a lot of promise. Unfortunately, his focus isn't all there."

"Why is that?" Pam asked.

"Well, his mother is sick, which is why he got started in all this to begin with. He thought it would be a quick way to earn money. He didn't realize how much training was involved. These guys he's fighting...it's not just your average street fight. I don't think he realized the level of commitment it takes to really make any money at this. Not to mention, there's a team that surrounds him to make it all possible. Not only is he paying me as a promoter, but then there's the trainers, the gym fees and all of the medical bills _he_ incurs for doing this. It's not a quick fix. Add to that, he's got other management teams wanting to recruit him."

"And the competition there, how stiff is it? Is he thinking about leaving?" Pam asked.

Sophie-Anne gave a confident smile. "You'd have to ask Quinn to be sure, but I happen to know Victor Madden has been pursuing him diligently for the last three months or so. He's made all sorts of offers and promised him all kinds of things to get Quinn to change promoters."

"And he's stayed because you're so amazing at what you do?" Pam smirked.

"El Rey is a good promoter, I'll give that, but he doesn't give the sort of personal attention to his clients he should. He's in it strictly for the money. I'm not saying Quinn and I are best friends, but I make it a point to take his best interests to heart, something El Rey doesn't consider."

"And who is El Rey?" I asked her.

"Felipe de Castro, Victor Madden's boss. He fancies himself a king in Las Vegas. Not only is he the top boss there, but he's also somewhat of a ladies man. Personally, I fail to see his charm. In _any_ capacity." Sophie-Anne did seem less than impressed with 'El Rey.'

"Have you heard Quinn mention Sookie Stackhouse?" Pam asked, point blank.

"He's very disturbed by her disappearance. I never met her personally, but I know Quinn was terribly upset by their breakup."

"Where were you the night Sookie disappeared?" I asked her.

Sophie-Anne's eyes shifted to mine. "I was with Quinn, as a matter of fact. We were having drinks with the organizers of a fight coming up in September, putting together the final details of the deal."

"I don't suppose you have a contact we can speak to?"

"Of course. I'll have my assistant get you the information. Listen, detectives, I fully intend to cooperate in this investigation. I run this business on the up and up. I pay my taxes and I treat my clients fairly. Sookie may have been a source of distraction where Quinn is concerned, but he was moving past it just fine. Her disappearance has knocked him back a few pegs, and it's in everyone's best interest she's found. I will be happy to help in any way I can." Sophie-Anne assured us.

"Thank you for your time, Ms. LeClerq. We'll be in touch." Pam stood and I followed.

I'll admit, my head wasn't as in the game as it should have been. I still wasn't sleeping well and it was starting to take a toll on me. When I wasn't in the office, I was following up on any leads I possibly could. Unfortunately, there wasn't a whole lot to go on.

"I'll get in touch with the people up in Vegas and see what they can send me about El Rey," Pam said once we were in the car. "You should go home."

"Pam, I'm fine."

She rolled her eyes and said, "You're a fucking zombie. This case is destroying you. I get that it's personal, and you have every right to-"

"Pam..."

"Knock it off, Northman. You're going to start getting careless really soon if you don't cut the shit. If you really want to help Sookie, then start taking better care of yourself. Right now, you're fucking useless to me. So go home, get some sleep and maybe eat something other than a Power Bar. Then come back to work and we'll figure this thing out."

It's not that I didn't want to sleep or eat, so much as I felt like there were better uses of my time. Whenever I would lay down and try to quiet my brain, I ended up with horrible images of Sookie either dead or tortured in my mind. It sucked that Pam was right, yet again. My brain wasn't functioning properly, and I wasn't doing anyone any favors by running myself into the ground.

"Fine. You win."

"Good. I'll drop you at home." Pam sped out of the parking lot and headed for my apartment.

* * *

**SPOV**

The dream was awful and I kept having it over and over again. I was being moved from location to location by my captors, and every time Eric got close, they'd stash me somewhere else. He was never far from me. Once I even saw him out the back of a van window, running after me. He was thinner than I remembered. His hair was shaggy, as was the slight beard he'd let grow. He looked pale and desperate. He screamed after me, but there was nothing I could do but watch the distance between us grow until he tracked me down again. Then it would happen all over.

I lost count of the number of times I woke up crying, but it wasn't for myself. I didn't feel any self-pity. I knew that whoever was holding me was crazy. Their entire rationale screamed of revenge for sins they'd completely created in their own heads. I worried about Eric almost constantly. We'd been together long enough to know that as much as he tried, he didn't ever really leave his work at work. There was always some sort of carryover, and I was willing to bet he'd already figured out my disappearance was connected to Debbie.

Then there was Gran, the very definition of a Steel Magnolia. I knew she was strong, but I also knew she'd run herself ragged trying to find me. I almost pitied Bud Dearborn and the rest of the folks over at the sheriff's department, since I was sure Gran had pretty much deputized herself. God help them if she ever walked in to find everyone sitting around drinking coffee.

It wasn't easy to do, but I'd talked myself out of the initial panic I had felt. Was I pissed off I'd been kidnapped? You bet your ass I was. Did I think my boyfriend was going to rescue me? I never doubted for a single second that he would. I knew it was only a matter of time before Eric figured it out. I just had to be patient and keep my sanity.

The door to my room flew open. One of the girls was standing there with a large pair of rusty scissors in her hand. "So, Princess, that hair of yours is awfully tangled. I think it's about time we fix it."

* * *

**EPOV**

"Eric, what are you doing here?" Adele asked when I showed up unannounced at her door two days later.

"Well, Sookie told me she had dinner with you once a week. Since she's not here, I thought maybe I'd be an acceptable substitute."

Adele looked like she was going to cry, and the hug she gave me was more than welcome. "You bet your patootie it is."

I chuckled at her choice of words, and stepped into the house when she let me go. "How've you been holding up, Adele?"

"I've been keeping busy. Sitting around here moping won't do me any good, and it won't bring our Sookie home. Jason and Amy have put together a search party, and they're going out into the woods tomorrow. It's a darn sight more than those nimrods at the sheriff's department have done. I swear, every time I call over there, Bud Dearborn tells me I'm being impatient. Maybe I am, but that's my grand baby that's missing. What else am I supposed to do?" Adele poured us both a glass of iced tea.

"I know it's frustrating, Adele, but really, it's best if you let the police handle it. If it helps, I think there's a connection between Sookie's disappearance and a case I've been working. Did you know Quinn?" I asked her.

"You mean the meathead with purple eyes?" Adele didn't seem to approve.

"Yes, him."

"He was polite enough, the handful of times I saw him. Never came for supper, though. I only ever met him face to face one time. He had his sister in the truck with him when he came to pick up a casserole Sookie made for him."

"What do you know about her?"

"She's a skinny little thing. She's got big brown eyes and her hair comes down to just above her shoulders. I think her name was Fanny or Frannie...something like that."

Quinn had mentioned Frannie when he was first interviewed. "Frannie. Quinn mentioned her when we interviewed him. He said his sister gave up school to take care of their mother."

Adele nodded as she began to pull out ingredients for supper. "It's a sad story, really. The girl is very bright, from what Sookie told me. Frannie worked really hard to get a bunch of scholarships for school since her family is like a lot of families around here, and there just wasn't money to put away for college. She was studying to be a forensic scientist, I think, but then after she had to drop out to take care of her mother I heard something about her enrolling in beauty school over in Bossier City."

"You certainly keep your ear to the ground." I teased. Sookie had told me more than once Adele didn't see it as gossiping, so much as "keepin' up with the Joneses."

"I hear things is all." Adele defended herself and started to peel vegetables.

"You wouldn't happen to know what beauty school, would you?"

"All it'd take is a phone call to Maxine Fortenberry to find out. Page Six has nothing on her." Adele laughed, and turned toward me. "So, young man, how long are you going to wait after you find my granddaughter before you ask her to marry you?"

o.O.o.O.o

After dinner with Adele, I phoned in the information about the search party going out to look for Sookie in two days. Stan promised to stick a couple of our plain clothes guys in there as well just to be sure. I would be there, as would Pam and Amelia. Gran's questions about my future with Sookie got me thinking. She really was putting the pressure on for Sookie to get married and have kids. She was excited about the prospect of the next generation coming up.

Mostly. I got the impression she was looking forward to finally being a grandmother, since she didn't really get that chance with Sookie and Jason. I couldn't blame her for it. We didn't spend the whole evening talking about Sookie, although she did get choked up when we talked about books and _Gone With the Wind_ came up.

"I bet you wherever she is, she's probably channeling her inner Scarlett O'Hara," Adele said with a sad smile before quoting the book. "As God as my witness, they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's over, I'll never be hungry again."

That certainly sounded like my Sookie. For once her fierce determination and stubbornness might come in extremely handy. I hoped Adele was right. I hoped Sookie was thinking those very words over and over again. I hoped she knew I was looking for her and had no intention of giving up. I wasn't the only one. There were fliers hanging up all over town with Sookie's picture on them. A hotline number had been set up for people to call in tips if they saw her. There was limited information on the fliers, telling people what Sookie was wearing when she disappeared, along with the date and where she'd been taken from.

So far, few tips had been called in and after a conversation with Bud Dearborn, I learned none of them had panned out. Sandra Pelt popped into the police department the next day to check on the investigation, but I wasn't there when she came in. I was off doing some research on Quinn's sister. Adele had been able to get me the name of the beauty school in Bossier City. A visit to them informed me Francine E. Quinn was, in fact, an enrolled student. She'd been absent for the last ten days, claiming her mother's illness had flared up.

I talked to a few of Frannie's classmates, all of whom said Frannie was disgruntled over having to leave college. Frannie hadn't been extremely social, but she had become rather good friends with the other black sheep in the class. I found the girl in the practice lab, sweeping hair into a pile.

"Lydia?"

"Who's asking?" she didn't even look up.

"I'm Detective Eric Northman with the Shreveport police. I was hoping you might be able to answer some questions about Frannie Quinn?"

She snorted and said, "That bitch is a psycho. Whatever your question, the answer is Frannie's crazy."

And these two were friends?

"I was told by some of your classmates you and Frannie got to know one another."

"We did, and that's how I know she's crazy." Lydia looked up from her chore. "Look, I know I don't look all that sane myself," she had multiple piercing in her face and ears. She had full sleeves of ink, and she was wearing a studded collar. No, she didn't look normal. "But I assure there's a big difference between an off-beat sense of style and actually being nuts."

"What makes you say Frannie was nuts?"

"She used to go off on these rants about this ex-girlfriend of her brother's. She was always saying how if the girlfriend would have just stayed with Quinn, Frannie wouldn't have had to drop out of college to take care of her mother. She was especially pissed off about having to move back home. She said she liked living with her roommate and didn't want to be stuck in her mother's house all the time."

"Any idea who the roommate is?"

"I never got a last name, but the first name is Sandy. I might have a picture of her from Frannie's birthday party a few months back."

"That would be great."

Lydia dug into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. After a few minutes she turned the phone toward me. "That's Frannie on the right and Sandy on the left."

My jaw nearly hit the ground, in spite of all my training. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The link I'd been waiting for had been found. Sandra Pelt was Frannie's roommate.

* * *

**SPOV**

I know it's stupid, but I cried when she cut my hair. My hair had always been long, and now...well, it wasn't long anymore. She'd cut it a little at a time, dropping lock after lock into a box. My heart broke at the idea of the box being sent to my Gran.

"Hold still, Princess, I'd hate to cut that pretty neck of yours. Then again, I wonder if that boyfriend of yours would still love you if you weren't so pretty." The faceless woman taunted.

I kept quiet. I refused to beg and give her the satisfaction she wanted. The crying was bad enough. I told myself to calm down. It was just hair; it would grow back. I repeated it over and over until the words lost their meaning.

* * *

**EPOV**

Quinn was brought in for another round of questioning. He seemed pretty thrown off by the focus we had on his sister. It dawned on me then that Adele's description of a 'meathead with purple eyes' wasn't quite as far off as I'd initially thought. He really just didn't have the brain power to connect the dots, which begged the question of what Sookie had seen in him.

"Whoa, whoa, are you suggesting _Frannie_ had something to do with Sookie being kidnapped?" The light was finally going on.

Pam gave me an incredulous look and I knew that was my cue to start talking before she completely snapped and smashed Quinn's head into the table.

"Here's the thing, Quinn," I pulled out a chair across from him at the table and sat down. "We know Frannie had a grudge against Sookie. We know Debbie blamed Sookie for the breakup she had with Alcide. We know Frannie was Debbie's sister's roommate and friend. We know you're connected to Frannie, Debbie _and_ Sookie. We know somehow, all of this is related, and unless someone starts talking we're just going to assume that you're the mastermind behind all of this."

"You certainly wouldn't be the first jealous ex to teach the little lady a lesson." Pam said from behind me.

Quinn just shook his head with wide eyes. The lights were on, but no one was home.

"Now, there are all sorts of unpleasant legal things we can do to really mess up your life, or you can start telling us what you know because I think you're hiding something." I glared hard at Quinn, who, in spite of his size, looked like he was about to piss himself.

"I swear, I don't know anything." Quinn looked like he was about to cry.

"Obviously," Pam muttered under her breath.

"I'm telling you, I don't know what happened to Sookie. I don't know what happened to Debbie. I know Frannie. She couldn't do something like this. Yeah, she was pissed at Sookie when we broke up, but that's because she was looking out for me. If some guy broke her heart, I'd be pissed off, too. That's just the way it goes. And I know she wasn't real happy about having to move home to take care of Mom. She was happy at Southern. She hated the dorm, but she loved her roommate."

"And you didn't think it was worth it to mention Frannie, who has a grudge against Sookie, was roommates with Sandra Pelt, who's sister _also_ had a grudge against Sookie?" I couldn't believe it. Pam was right; he _was_ fucking idiot.

"I want a lawyer." Quinn said quickly.

"Well, you're not under arrest, so you don't need a lawyer."

"Then does that mean I can go?" Quinn's eyes shifted nervously from Pam to me.

"For now. Don't go far." Pam glared, clearly as unhappy that we had nothing we could hold Quinn on. As soon as he was gone Pam said, "I'll get patrol to sit on him."

"And I'll see if I can't get a list of properties owned by the Quinn and Pelt families." I jumped up from the table and got to work.

Hours later, I'd done everything I could do. I decided to call it a somewhat early night since I was expected to be in Bon Temps to join the search party for Sookie. I had a feeling it was useless to search Bon Temps. My gut told me she wasn't there and the search was a waste of time, but it would keep everyone busy and out of the way.

By the time I got back to my apartment, all I wanted was dinner, a shower and some sleep. I made a quick phone call to Adele to tell her we'd caught a break and we were following up on the lead with Sandra and Frannie. I asked her to keep it quiet. I didn't need a vigilante mob showing up on Quinn's front door, demanding Frannie's head on a stick. Until we knew for sure she was involved in Sookie's disappearance, it was best not to leak the information too much.

Adele promised me she would keep it to herself and thanked me profusely for letting her know what was happening. She cussed out Bud Dearborn for good measure before inviting me over for another Sunday supper. I gladly accepted the invitation and promised to update her when I knew more.

Before going up to my apartment, I stopped at the bay of mailboxes and retrieved my mail. It was mostly the usual, sales fliers, sweepstakes offers, bills and the newest edition of Rolling Stone. There was also a box. It wasn't very big and it didn't really weigh much. I didn't recall ordering anything, and the box was postmarked from Monticello.

When I got upstairs, I dropped everything on the breakfast bar in the kitchen, I grabbed a knife from the butcher block and sliced through the tape on the box. I pulled back the flaps to see what was inside, expecting some cheap trinket from a company trying to sell me something. Instead what I found was hair. I pulled out a whole handful of it. It was tangled and a little matted in some places. At the bottom of the box was a Polaroid that made my stomach turn.

Nearly two weeks had passed since she disappeared, but I'd finally gotten communication from Sookie's kidnappers.

* * *

So, still think Bill's involved? Thanks for reading!


	11. I'd Come For You

Chapter 11: I'd Come For You

**EPOV**

I knew even without the picture at the bottom of the box that I was holding Sookie's hair in my hand. Her hair was the exact same shade as my own. Not to mention, who else was going to send me a box of their hair? The picture of her at the bottom was what really pissed me off. I couldn't tell if her eyes were just closed because of the flash, if she was out cold or if she was dead. Her arms were bound to the bed. She was still dressed in her Merlotte's uniform.

I had no idea how old the picture was. It could have been taken the same day she was, or it could have been taken right before her hair was cut off. If I had to guess, her hair had been cut to about chin length. Her clothes were filthy, there were bruises on her face and what I could see of her skin looked like it had been rubbed raw in a few places. The Sookie I was looking at didn't really look like the Sookie I knew.

I took a few deep breaths to calm my nerves, then headed back to the police station to turn in the box and photograph as evidence. If we were lucky, we'd be able to get prints off the box. Even better would be if the shipper paid the charges for sending the box by credit card. It also gave us a place to start searching for Sookie. I called Pam on the drive over and let her know what I was up to. She offered to meet me back at the station, but I told her not to.

I wanted some time to process everything for myself. After tagging the box and photograph, I made another call to Adele to tell her I wouldn't be able to make the search party the next day after all. Something had most definitely come up that required further investigating. I checked in to see if there was any progress on the searches we'd initiated for property ownership. There was nothing yet, but it had only been a few hours.

Rather than going home, however, I got in the car and onto the highway. I drove fast with the windows open and the music loud. I channeled my emotions through Layne Staley until I got off the highway. My car came to a stop in front of Sookie's house. I hadn't been in her house since she disappeared, although Adele had told me she'd spent a couple of hours cleaning the place up after Bud Dearborn and his crew trashed the place in a search.

I seriously wondered if they got involved with law enforcement for the power trip and the shit they saw on television. It's not all chasing suspects on foot, having shoot outs or smug lines of questioning when you know you've got the right person in your interrogation room, but Bon Temps finest didn't seem to get that. I also made a note to find out how many keys were found on Sookie's keyring. I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it sooner.

My foot slid off the brake and I rolled into Sookie's driveway. I wasn't sure what I was doing there, but I think I just needed to feel closer to her. I put the car in park and went in through the back door. The kitchen was spotless. Adele had certainly outdone herself in cleaning the place up when the police were finished with it. I moved from room to room, making sure nothing was missing. It all seemed to be in order.

I saved Sookie's bedroom for last. All of the dirty laundry had been washed. The bed was made and the curtains were pulled back. I sat on the edge of her bed and just stared blankly at the wall ahead. For the first time, my mind started to process the possibility that Sookie may have been dead in that picture. I quickly pushed those thoughts away. No, no, I wasn't searching for a corpse.

She was alive. I had to hold onto that. I wouldn't give up hope that she was going to be just fine. I didn't know what the future held for us, but I knew I wanted her there. God, even if things didn't work out between us, I knew I wanted to be her friend. But I didn't even want to think like that either. I wanted to hold on to the better fantasies my mind had conjured up.

The idea of proposing to her wasn't scary at all. I imagined myself standing at an alter at the church of her choice, watching as she walked toward me in a pretty white dress. I even let my mind go so far as to imagine what I would do if she told me we were pregnant. It didn't make me want to run screaming, but then I'd never been the sort who would have. I'd always wanted to get married and have kids, it just always seemed like it was destined to happen further down the line.

Only, as I sat there on Sookie's bed, I realized the line had ended during that first slow dance at Don's Dock. Everything about her seemed familiar and mysterious at the same time. Holding her felt natural and with her gone, I clearly wasn't myself. I was scattered, drifting along and not functioning at the level I usually would. I was distracted all the time and the harder I tried to focus, the worse it got.

I lay back on the bed and breathed deep. A hint of Sookie's perfume clung to the sheets. My eyes closed and before I knew what was happening, tears were rolling down my temples. This was all my fault. She was missing because of me. I should have been able to get her back already. I was taking too long and my lack of focus was only going to cost her her life. It dawned on me then that she might hate me for what happened to her.

It was entirely possible that she might break up with me whenever my brain unfucked itself enough for me to find her. Then again, maybe she was dead. Maybe I should be mourning instead of worrying about her breaking up with me. Guilt overwhelmed me for all the ways I'd failed her in the last few weeks, but it wasn't just her. I'd let her family and friends down as well. I'd put her in danger and look what happened.

I cried until I remembered I was doing no one any favors by bitching out like I was. I decided to channel my anger, disappointment and fear into doing a better job investigating everything. The best way to do that was to get a good night's sleep. I got up and went to Sookie's bathroom, in search of the Tylenol PM I knew she kept there. I took three and then went back to her bed and lay down. Within a half an hour, I was out cold.

o.O.o.O.o

I woke up late the next morning with my cell ringing nonstop. Pam was calling. "What?" I muttered.

"Good morning to you, too, Sunshine. I thought you might want to know we got a hit on a property in Baton Rouge. The house belongs to a Judd Pelt, Sandra Pelt's late grandfather. We're already coordinating with Baton Rouge PD to take a look around. You might want to get your ass down here if you want in on the chopper taking us there."

"Fuck! I'm in Bon Temps. Hold the chopper until I get there. I'm on my way." I hung up and launched myself out of bed.

My bladder demanded a quick trip to the bathroom and then I was running out of the house. I broke every posted speed law on my way back to Shreveport. Thankfully, traffic wasn't bad and I wasn't pulled over. A delay like that would have been a real pain in the ass, especially since I didn't have my badge with me. I stopped at home to pick that up, along with my service revolver. I managed to get to the station within an hour of Pam's phone call.

"About time," she was leaned against her desk.

"What do we know about the house?" I asked.

"In here!" Stan called from the Bat Cave.

Pam and I walked into Stan's office. He had a blueprint rolled out on his desk. "This was sent over by the Baton Rouge Hall of Records. The house is somewhere around 200 years old and out in the woods near the wildlife preserve. It's the perfect spot for someone to stash a kidnap victim. Portia got us a warrant to search the premises, so we're going to team with the locals to execute since they have a better lay of the land. They also have a bigger tactical team than Bon Temps does. Their officers will be present as well, since Sookie's abduction is technically their case. We're there as a courtesy because of Eric's relationship with Sookie, and also because there might be evidence pertaining to our own case. Our CSU team is already en route to process the scene, since Bon Temps doesn't have their own CSU." Stan said that last part with a hint of disgust.

It just went to further prove that Bon Temps wasn't equipped to handle a serious crime. We divulged our plan of attack and how we were going to handle things. Stan dismissed Pam to go make sure we had all the necessary paperwork in order, but held me back.

"Listen, Eric, I know Sookie's your girlfriend, and I want to find her there, but if she's not that doesn't mean we won't find her." Stan was trying to be encouraging, which I appreciated.

"I just want her to be alive, wherever she is, Stan. I don't want to find a body."

He nodded and said, "Me either. Let's go."

The flight to Baton Rouge took about an hour. We touched down at an airfield where the locals were waiting for us. My brain sort of shutdown into a sort of completely focused concentration. Stan and Pam did all of the talking, filling in the locals on the case we'd been working so they would have a better idea of just what it was we were looking for. I briefly saw a flash of the Polaroid that had been at the bottom of the box that had been sent to me.

I closed my eyes and replaced that terrible image with one far more pleasant. I thought about Sookie on the deck of the houseboat in Lake Amistad. I saw her stretched out in a white sequined bikini, her beautiful hair pooled around her in soft waves. Her eyes were hidden by large sunglasses and her fingers absently drummed on her stomach. Her face was pointed toward the sun. Her knees were bent. She looked like an ad for a Caribbean resort. That's the Sookie I preferred to focus on; healthy, relaxed and as beautiful as ever.

I stared out the window, not really seeing much of anything as the SUV we were in sped toward the destination. I tried to think of what I was going to say when I saw Sookie. Something in my gut told me I was very close to finding her. When the SUV came to a stop, we were outside a ramshackle old house with loose shutters and a front porch that didn't look like it was safe to walk on. A busted rocking chair was next to a distressed table. The railing was missing slats and the front window was broken.

Twigs, leaves and various other natural debris littered the front lawn. Tattered curtains hung in one of the windows, and I could see another was boarded up. The house was obviously unlivable, and I was surprised it belonged to the Pelt family. It was a dump.

"We've got tire tracks." Stan pointed to the left of the house. That was good. CSU would be able to photograph and mold those tracks.

"Cigarette butts." Pam said, pointing the toe of her shoe.

I slipped on my vest and checked my weapon. So far, I hadn't had to fire my gun in the line of duty. I didn't get into law enforcement with the hope of having to shoot someone. I knew that at some point, I would probably get backed into a corner and have no choice in the matter. I wasn't looking forward to that day.

"We're ready to go in. We've got snipers set up in the trees just in case." The local officer in charge was named Lattesta. I didn't like him, but I didn't have to.

"Do we have medics on standby?" I asked.

"EMS is waiting at the end of the driveway for my mark. You're the boyfriend?" Lattesta asked.

"Yeah, I'm the boyfriend. I'm also the lead detective on the Pelt case."

"Right," Lattesta nodded. "Then I guess this is your show to call."

After a quick command meeting, we took up our positions. Pam had my back, usual. Stan was running the tactical teams from the outside. There was no movement inside the house we were able to detect. The place looked completely abandoned, but the tire tracks and cigarette butts told us someone had been there recently. On my mark, we entered the house.

The tactical unit smashed through the front door and with guns drawn, we moved inside one by one. Lattesta hollered out, identifying us as law enforcement, demanding anyone inside to come out from their hiding place with their hands up. As expected, no one appeared from anywhere. We checked behind every door before finally making it to the room with the boarded up windows.

"Quiet down!" I whisper shouted when I heard the muffled sounds of someone struggling.

Everything in that moment slowed down except for my heart and my breathing. Sookie might be on the other side of that door. I didn't know what I was going to find there. She could be hurt worse than the picture had led me to believe. Unbelievably, for the first time, it occurred to me she might have been sexually assaulted, which only made me angrier.

We'd been watching Quinn for days. We had eyes on him at all times, and we had access to his phone records, along with his sister's. If Quinn was responsible for Sookie's disappearance, he was laying low. My gut, however, told me he loved her too much to hurt her. Of course, that left the field open to anyone. His sister and Sandra were next on the list. Their motives were convoluted and muddled together, but they had reasons to want to hurt Sookie.

Maybe hurting me was just a sweet bonus. If that was the case, they were going to pay for it dearly as soon as I had my Sookie back. I took one last deep breath and kicked the door open. The tactical team swept the room, and a muffled scream filled my ears. It took a moment for my eyes to focus, but when they did, I realized the room was empty. It was absolutely the room Sookie had been kept in. I recognized the intricate pattern of the old fashioned wrought iron bed she'd been bound to.

The hoarse screaming continued. I moved quickly and yanked the closet door so hard it came off its hinges. I threw it to the side, and there, at the bottom of the closet, was Sookie. She was blindfolded, gagged and bound at the wrists and ankles. She was bruised, filthy and obviously terrified. I was on my knees in a heartbeat.

"Sookie, I'm here." I said in a voice that didn't sound like my own.

She was alive. She was alive. She was alive. She was also trying to speak.

"Sookie, I need you to calm down for me, okay? I'm going to get you out of here." I grabbed a knife from my utility belt and cut the blindfold off of her. Her head twisted viciously, searching for my face. "There you are."

She made another noise as she started to cry, her eyes pleading with me to free her faster. I got the gag out of her mouth and the first thing she said was, "I knew you'd find me."

"I love you, Sookie," I smiled down at her and smoothed some of her butchered hair back.

"How terrible do I look, and be honest." Her eyes were serious.

"Well, it's not your best hair day," I winked at her.

She laughed, which was the best thing I'd ever heard in my life. I got her arms and legs free, and slowly, she moved her own limbs to get her circulation going again. I heard the ambulance come up to the house.

"I'm going with you to the hospital." I moved to scoop her up.

"No," she shook her head. "I made myself a promise that if they set me free, I was going to walk out of here. So just help me up."

That was my girl. I don't think I'd ever been so proud of anyone in my whole life. I also knew, she was waiting to be alone before she lost it. She would grieve later and unload all of her pent up rage when she was all by herself. As she asked, I helped her to her feet. Her knees gave out almost instantly.

"Sorry. I've been in bed for weeks. My arms are killing me." She apologized as I wrapped my arm around her. "And I'm sure I don't smell too good either."

"Don't worry about it. We'll get you to the hospital and you'll get cleaned up."

"No bleach. I can't stand the smell of it."

Her skin. That's what they did to her. She didn't need to say the words. The cop in me had a million questions to ask, and wanted to know everything about her entire ordeal so I could go find the miserable sons of bitches who did this to her. But I couldn't justify treating her like a victim, nor was she going to let me. Not yet, anyway.

Slowly, we made our way out of the house one slow step at a time. When we got to the steps, I scooped her up and carried her down before she could complain. I set her down on the gurney that was waiting for her. The paramedics started doing their job, asking all sorts of questions about injuries she sustained, when she'd eaten last, had she been drugged...it never ended.

They saved the biggest question for last, and the one I was most curious to know myself.

"Where you sexually assaulted?" The female EMT asked.

Sookie's eyes raised to mine and she answered, "If I was, I don't remember it."

My heart sank and I tried not to let it show in my face. All of my years of training to hear the answer to a question like that were put into effect. Full poker face was on display. Sookie's vital signs were taken, and aside from dehydration and a very hungry tummy, the EMTs said she looked like she was in good condition. I climbed into the back of the ambulance with her. Stan was going to have to take over because there was no way I was leaving Sookie's side.

I held her hand as we rode to the nearest hospital. "Can you tell me anything about the people who took you?"

She sighed, closed her eyes and let her head roll toward me. "The night I was taken, I went outside to close my car windows. Frannie, Quinn's sister, pulled up in a big conversion van. We got into a verbal argument. It was stupid and I wasn't going to waste my time arguing over Quinn. I turned to go back inside, and I got whacked over the head with something. When I came to, I was in that room, tied to the bed, blindfolded and gagged. I never saw faces, Eric, but I know it was two women. One of them had a birthmark under her bottom lip. I didn't see any tattoos or anything like that. They were always in black from head to toe with their faces covered. I'm sorry."

I leaned down and kissed her forehead. "You have _nothing_ to be sorry for."

"I should have been more careful," her bottom lip quivered.

"Sookie, don't. If this is anyone's fault it's mi-"

"No!" Sookie reached up and covered my mouth. "If it's not my fault, then it's not yours either."

I kissed her fingertips and held her hand to my cheek. We didn't say anything else the rest of the way to the hospital.

* * *

Yay! She's back! She's alive! We can all breathe again! Of course, we still don't know who the hell took her, but all will be revealed in due time. Thanks for reading!


	12. Hold Your Hand

Chapter 12: Hold Your Hand

**SPOV**

My last day in captivity was strange. From the time I came out of whatever drug induced haze they were keeping me in, I could feel the tension. She started by binding my legs together at the ankles. I was blindfolded and gagged. My arms were released and I was shot up again with more medication. The pins and needles in my arms hadn't even gone away when my arms were wrenched behind my back so my wrists could be bound together once again.

My clothes were beyond soiled, by that point. My stomach rumbled. If I had to guess, I hadn't been fed in about two days. My skin was still itchy and stinging from the chemical burns of the bleach bath I'd gotten maybe a week ago. I couldn't remember what it was like to stand up straight. I decided right then and there that when Eric came for me, I was going to walk out of the house. Even if it took me hours to do it, I was going to walk out.

I was literally kicked out of the bed and landed hard on my left side. My face smacked against the floor. For a few seconds, I couldn't breath. I was grabbed by my feet and dragged across the old wooden floor. After a few square kicks to my back, kidneys and legs, I was in a much smaller space. The closet, I figured. Complete darkness descended on me and I passed out again.

There was no sound until it seemed like there was an explosion. A man's voice shouted out. The police had come. Eric. Eric had come. I started screaming, but the gag in my mouth kept the sound muffled. It felt like an eternity before the police finally reached the bedroom I was in. I heard the door burst open, and I started screaming again. The closet door opened. I felt the rush of air. I was screaming Eric's name over and over.

And then there were the most beautiful words I'd ever heard. "Sookie, I'm here." It was him. It was Eric. He'd come for me. He'd found me.

I had a million things I wanted to say, but as soon as he got the blindfold off, all I could do was look at him. It was real. It wasn't some terrible dream. He'd really come for me. I was safe. I was going home. I was going home with him. I didn't want to leave him ever again. Ever. For any reason. I wanted my arms and legs free so I could wrap myself around him. But we weren't alone. It would have to wait until later.

"I knew you'd find me." I said to him when he got the gag out of my mouth.

Everything was a bit of a blur after that. My brain was still fuzzy from all the drugs and I was overwhelmed by all the people. I was so used to silence and limited contact that having dozens of people buzzing around me was just a huge drain what little strength I had. I fell asleep before we got to the hospital, but Eric never let go of my hand.

When I woke up, he was sitting beside my bed with his eyes focused on mine. "Good, you're still here. It wasn't a dream."

"I'm not leaving your side." he squeezed my hand.

I moved over and patted the bed next to me. "Snuggle me please."

He moved lightning quick and stretched out beside me in the oddly positioned hospital bed. I rested my head against his chest and listened to the steady beat of his heart. His fingers gently combed through my much shorter hair. His lips brushed against my forehead and he hummed softly.

"I told you you were a hummer," I mumbled before we both started laughing. "How long am I stuck here?"

"Just overnight. You're dehydrated and they want to make sure you can hold food. They ran a few blood tests, and there were traces of morphine in your system. That's probably what was used to keep you knocked out." Eric paused and his arms tightened around me just a little. "The doctor also did a rape exam."

Oh. Right. "And?"

"There was no evidence you'd been sexually assaulted."

I nodded against his chest and before I knew what was happening, the dams broke and I started sobbing. I knew deep in my gut it hadn't happened, but there was so much time I spent unconscious it was entirely possible it had. Eric held me tightly while I cried it all out, and by the time I was done, I was asleep again. Eric woke me up a little while later when a tray was brought in for me.

"Sookie, wake up. Food's here," he kissed my head gently and slid out from under me.

I didn't even have to sit up. He adjusted the bed for me so I was upright and then slowly began to remove the lids from the dishes. There was way more food on there than I could eat, despite how hungry I was. I had beef barley soup, a small tossed salad with ranch dressing on the side, a baked chicken breast, mashed potatoes with gravy, applesauce, chocolate pudding, milk, iced tea and a diet soda.

"Jesus Christ, shepherd of Judea," my eyes were wide as saucers. "You're going to help me eat all this."

"Sookie, you need to eat. Don't worry about me."

"Don't be ridiculous. Believe me, I'm hungry, but I can't possibly eat all this. Besides, you've been here all day. Have you eaten anything?" I looked at him with concern.

"Don't worry about me," he repeated, which meant he hadn't.

"Eric, I realize I'm probably not looking any better, but you look like hell right now. Have you slept at all?"

Eric sighed and as I grabbed the small salad plate and began to nibble on the veggies. "Not as much as I should have. Every time I'd close my eyes, I always saw these horrific things. During the day I refused to consider the possibility you were..." he trailed off, his voice clogged with emotion. I reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze, urging him to continue. "I guess at night my brain would go places I wouldn't let it during the day."

"I'm safe now, Eric. You found me. I knew you would. I knew you wouldn't give up."

"I wasn't the only one looking for you. Jason and Amy went out in a search party today that they organized to find you. Bud called Adele a while ago to let her know we found you. I'm sure she'll be here first thing in the morning to see you."

I continued to eat and Eric asked me a few more questions about what had happened while I was gone. I told him what I could, but there wasn't much to tell. He told me it was the box of hair that had broken the case wide open, since it gave them somewhere to start searching. He told me that even though I hadn't seen a face, Pam was going to be bringing by some pictures for me to take a look at to see if there was anyone I recognized.

"We're waiting on DNA to come back from the cigarette butts we collected from the house. Do you remember if either of the women were smokers?"

"No, but I smelled it once in a while. The house was pretty drafty so it's a good thing it wasn't wintertime." I set down the empty salad plate and started picking at the mashed potatoes. "Did the doctor say anything about the burns on my arm?"

"They're prescribing some sort of steroid cream, I think, to help with the healing there. They also found some pretty nasty bruises on your back."

"That was from being kicked earlier," I admitted and blinked back another round of tears.

"Listen, Sookie, there's a great psychologist the department works with. I can get you her number if you want someone to talk to about this." Eric offered with a small smile. "I can understand why there are some things you might not want to talk to me about."

"I'll think about it," I nodded and watched as he cut up my chicken for me. "So are you going to baby me from now on?"

"For a little while. I'd like it if you came to stay with me until we close the case."

"Eric, I've been enough trouble already." I sighed.

"Don't do that, Sookie. Don't feel like you have to push me away. If I didn't want you with me, I wouldn't say it." He was right about that.

"I'd like to," I smiled softly and continued, "I just don't want to be dependent on you. I don't want to be afraid to be alone."

"That's understandable. I've got a few days off. I told Stan I needed some personal time, which he understands. Pam's going to be running the investigation and she'll keep us updated on what's happening."

"Are you sure about this? I don't want to be the reason your career gets derailed, Eric. I know your work is important to you."

"It is," he nodded and took the bite of chicken I offered him. "But you're more important."

That was saying a lot and the weight of his statement landed right on my chest. Hearing him say things like that always put me in a bit of a tailspin. There was a part of me that immediately wanted to reject the things he was saying as him just trying to be nice, even when I knew he meant every word he said. He didn't play games or jerk me around. There was just this little bit of residual insecurity that one of these days I was going to wake up and realize it had all been a dream. I'd find out Eric wasn't real, because he often seemed too good to be true, and my heart would just shatter.

But he was very real, and he was waiting for me to say something. "You're too good to me."

His eyes clouded over and he said, "I should have been better. You wouldn't be here if I was."

That angered me and I snapped at him. "Hey! What did we say in the ambulance? If it's not my fault, then it's not yours either. Neither of us could have predicted this, Eric."

"That doesn't make you any less injured," he said glumly.

"Eric, listen to me. I don't blame you for this. Whoever did this to me I trust you will find and I believe justice will be served. What happened isn't your fault, but if you're going to feel guilty about it, channel it into finding the people who hurt me. Just promise me you won't beat yourself up about it." I stared into his eyes, begging for him to agree.

He nodded silently and sat down at the foot of my bed. "You should eat before it gets cold."

"Help me," I handed him my fork and then picked up my spoon. "No way am I going to eat all of this."

He looked reluctant, but I pushed the tray a little closer to him. Honestly, how did they expect a single person to finish all that food? I didn't think it was just me, but maybe I _was_ the only one who lost their appetite when I wasn't feeling well. Judging by the portions, they hadn't heard of that particular side effect. Eric picked at the food, initially, but when I abandoned the chicken and mashed potatoes after a few bites in favor of the soup instead, he finished off what I left behind.

After I was done eating, I made room for him to lay beside me. I wondered why the nurses hadn't come to kick him out yet and he told me he'd made it clear he was my personal bodyguard for the night. After a flash of his badge, they were less inclined to question him. Although they weren't crazy about him being armed, given that it was a hospital and the walls were lined with oxygen tanks. I sincerely hoped no one caused any trouble or it'd be lights out for all of us.

We snuggled in the cramped space the hospital bed offered us, and I fell asleep while we were watching something on Animal Planet. I dreamt I was back in that awful bedroom, the smell of bleach flooding my senses as it was scrubbed into my skin. The pain was excruciating and I woke up screaming. Eric was right there next to me, trying to calm me down, but it took me a moment to realize I wasn't actually back in that room. I was with him. I was safe.

"Sookie, you're safe. You're with me," Eric cupped my face in his hands. "Want some water?"

I nodded, unable to speak. A nurse came into the room to check on me. I'm sure I scared half the ward with my screaming. The nurse offered to get me a sleeping pill, but I didn't want to take anymore drugs than I had to. The medications to help heal my burns were enough for me. I didn't want to take anything that was habit forming. It was bad enough that I'd been shot up with morphine.

"Hey Eric?" I pulled my knees up to my chest as he came back into my room with a fresh pitcher of water.

"Yeah?"

"I was thinking...if I was drugged with morphine, like, how easy is it to get that on the street? I mean, it's not common, right? So wouldn't someone who works in a hospital have to be one of the people who took me?" I asked him.

He thought it over for a second before his eyes went wide. "Or someone with a sick relative."

"Frannie." We said at the same time.

Eric pulled his cell from his pocket and called Pam.

o.O.o.O.o

The next morning I had Eric call in my breakfast order for me while I got in the shower. He was combing my unevenly cut hair when the tray was delivered. Once again there was too much food on the tray, but I had a ravenous giant more than willing to help me out. I had the oatmeal and fresh fruit while Eric ate the omelet and hashbrowns. We shared the coffee, since we were both addicts, and we each had half of the bagel.

My doctor was just coming in with discharge instructions and the prescriptions for the medications he wanted me to take when Gran came bustling into the room. She interrupted just long enough to give me a hug and then nearly squeeze the life out of Eric. I suspected they'd bonded nicely in my absence, and it didn't escape my notice that both Eric's hands were occupied by a Stackhouse woman as the doctor finished talking.

"How're you feeling, honey?" Gran stood at my bedside, looking over the burns and bruises I had.

"I've been better, but I'll be just fine. I'm getting out of here in a few hours and I'm going to go home with Eric until all this is resolved."

"That's a smart idea. I don't like the idea of you being alone in your place." Gran squeezed my hand.

"Me either. I spent enough time alone in the last couple of weeks." I smiled up at her.

Gran looked to Eric, who seemed to take the hint that Gran wanted me all to herself for a minute. "Eric, Jason and Amy are out in the waiting room. Would you mind updating them on how Sookie's doing?"

"Sure, Adele. I'll go get coffee for everyone." Eric leaned down and kissed my head, then headed out.

"So, how are you really doing?" Gran sat at the edge of my bed.

I took a deep breath and said, "I'm thankful, Gran. I'm angry, tired and disappointed, but I know I'm going to be fine. All things considered, it could have been much worse. I'm just sorry I worried everyone. I should have been more careful."

"Fiddlesticks. You didn't know what was going to happen, did you?"

"Of course not."

"Then there's no use in feeling guilty, Sookie. Besides, I think maybe there's something good to come from this."

"Oh yeah?" I smiled at her. "What's that?"

"Well, it woke your brother up, for one thing. That boy was in a state when he found out someone took you. He and Amy worked like dogs to try and find you, and I think it got him to really think about the things that matter in life. And Sookie, that man of yours, he loves you. He was a mess. He came by the house to have dinner with me a few times while you were gone. He's a keeper."

"Yes, he is." I agreed. I'll admit I melted a little at the idea of Eric taking my place at Gran's. It was such a considerate thing to do, but I imagined it also brought both of them some comfort. It made me happy to know they got along well enough to count on each other in such a way.

"I know I give you a hard time about settling down, but it's only because I want you to be happy. I don't want to worry about you. I think Eric is very good for you."

"He asked me to stay with him, you know."

"I think he's going to ask you a lot more than that, child."Gran squeezed my hand again and I smiled down at my lap. "What would you say if he did?"

"I'd say yes before he even got all the words out." I admitted.

Gran was positively beaming and I knew she would fall asleep that night counting great grand babies instead of sheep. "I'm happy for ya, darlin'."

"Thanks, Gran."

"Now, I hate to be a party pooper, but we have to do something about this," she touched my hair gently.

"Yeah, I'm going to make an appointment with Janice."

"Alcide's sister?" Gran recalled. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Gran, Janice is perfectly harmless. She was actually pissed at Alcide when we broke up. Besides, she does a great job, and it would be good to see her. It's been a while."

Gran didn't look convinced, but she didn't say anything else about it. Jason, Amy and Eric came back a short time later. We sat and visited for a while before the nurse came in with my discharge papers. Jason had brought me a new dress to wear home, which I appreciated, since I definitely had no intention of putting on a Merlotte's uniform anytime soon.

We went to lunch with Jason, Amy and Gran. I didn't eat much, but I figured my body just needed to get used to being fed regularly again. Eric rented a car for us to drive back to Shreveport in, since he'd arrived in Baton Rouge by helicopter. I slept most of the way home. Eric woke me up when he stopped in Alexandria to get gas and stretch his legs. I got out of the car with him, overwhelmed with an irrational fear that someone might steal the car with me in it. It was crazy, deep down I knew that, but I wasn't willing to take the chance.

I held Eric's hand tightly. If he noticed I was stressed out, he didn't say anything. He smiled down at me and held the door when we got to the little convenience store. I went to use the restroom while Eric paid for the gas and got us each a bottle of water for the rest of the ride home. Eric got back behind the wheel and I got settled in the passenger's seat.

"Can we stop at my house? I want to pick up some stuff."

"Sure. Your Gran cleaned the place from top to bottom after the police searched it." Eric told me.

"The police searched my house?" My jaw dropped.

"We had to make sure you weren't there," Eric looked over at me. "And there was hope we'd find something with clues as to who was responsible."

"Eric, if I had any idea I was going to be kidnapped, I would have told you."

"I know, Sookie," he rested his hand on my knee. "No one thinks you staged your disappearance."

I exhaled slowly and looked out the window. "Have you heard about Frannie yet?"

"An A.P.B. was put out for her, Sandra and Quinn last night." Eric told me.

"Quinn?" I was shocked by that. "Eric, I know Quinn _looks_ menacing, but I don't think he's vindictive enough to do something like this."

"We have to check him out, Sookie. He's the link to all of this, and until we can absolutely account for where he was when you were taken, he's a suspect. Right now, we're focusing on Sandra and Frannie since the property belonged to the Pelt family, but we can't rule out Quinn." Eric explained.

"I hate this," I shook my head. "I hate that everyone is a suspect and every single person who's ever been in contact with me is a suspect."

"Not everyone, Sookie."

"What about you? I bet they thought _you_ took me." The look on his face told me I was right. "This is insane, Eric."

"We're going to sort it out, Sookie. It won't be like this forever," he promised.

I sighed and put my seat back a little. He picked up my hand and squeezed it gently, reassuringly. The Eagles played quietly, _Hotel California_ swirling in my brain as I drifted off to sleep. It was oddly calming to me, considering the irony of it with whole point of the song is being held captive. Some dance to remember, some dance to forget indeed.

Sleep was dreamless for the rest of the trip. The sky was shades of pink, orange and purple by the time we got to my house. Eric pulled up the driveway and parked in the back. Thankfully, he had my key since mine were still in the evidence locker at the Bon Temps police department. I was going to have to make a trip over there to get my car out of impound and get my stuff back. I grabbed my phone charger and packed a bag.

Eric wasn't kidding when he said Gran had cleaned the place from top to bottom. I kept my little house pretty tidy, but it was obvious Gran had gotten down on her hands and knees to scrub the floors. I collapsed on my bed, not at all tired, but thankful to be back in my own space. Eric sat down beside me and rubbed my hip.

"You okay?"

"I'm afraid to be alone, Eric. That's not right." I confessed to him.

"It's understandable with everything you've been through. You'll get back to normal in time, and you'll feel better once we catch the people who took you." He promised and stretched out next to me.

I realized then that I hadn't given him a proper kiss, and there was no time like the present. I scooted closer and rested my palm on his cheek. We stared into each other's eyes for a moment, and we must have been thinking the same thing since both of us moved in. My lips brushed his, testing the waters. We stared at each other for a minute, but then my eyes closed and I kissed him for real. My arm ended up around his neck, pulling him on top of me.

The weight felt familiar and made me feel safe and grounded. We lay there kissing for a while, but nothing more. I wasn't ready for more just yet, and mostly, it was because I was grossed out by my skin. I was willing to bet Eric wasn't the least bit disgusted by it, but it creeped me out. The kiss broke mutually, and Eric moved to the side with a goofy grin on his face.

"What?" I smiled at him.

"I just forgot how good you taste," he smirked and sat up beside me.

"I didn't," I pulled him down and kissed him one more time. "Thank you, Eric."

He pulled me into a hug, and for a little while, it felt like nothing had changed.

* * *

Story's winding down, baby birds. Chapter 17 or 18 will be it for these two. Thanks for reading!


	13. Gimme Shelter

Chapter 13: Gimme Shelter

**EPOV**

Sookie wouldn't let me take time off. I'd planned to stay with her for a few days after she'd been found, but she wasn't having any of it. She insisted she needed to get back to as much of a normal life as possible. She wasn't ready to go back to work just yet, but it seemed Merlotte's probably wasn't going to be part of her life much longer. While she was missing, she'd gotten a call from Claudine Crane.

Sookie had never made it to the second interview she'd been scheduled for, but Claudine wanted to reschedule after hearing on the news that Sookie had been abducted. So I took just one day off, long enough to get Sookie's things back from the police department and have my locks changed at the apartment just in case. I was curious as to how Sookie's kidnappers had discovered my address, but it was entirely possible they'd followed me from the station one night.

Either that, or they'd been stalking Sookie to see what her habits were. Frannie was brought into the Bon Temps police department for questioning. I wasn't there to observe, but in talking with Bud Dearborn after the fact, I learned Frannie had denied knowing anything about Sookie's disappearance. She admitted to seeing Sookie the night she was abducted, but claimed she hadn't played a part in it. We were still waiting on DNA evidence to come back on the cigarette butts outside the house. If we could put Frannie at the scene, that would give us some leverage to work with.

Sandra, it seemed, wasn't quite as easy to find. Her parents claimed to have no knowledge of her whereabouts, and were balked at the idea their daughter was capable of what we were suggesting. Well, they were until they discovered the keys for the house down in Baton Rouge were missing. At that point, everything seemed to break wide open.

When threatened with being charged as accessories after the fact, they offered all sorts of information about Sandra. It turned out she'd been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder at the age of fourteen. At first, the Pelts had just assumed that Sandra was just going through the usual puberty related issues, but the mood swings became extreme to the point where Sandra attempted suicide shortly before she was diagnosed. She was put on Seroquel and started attending weekly therapy appointments.

The medication regulated Sandra's moods and the therapy seemed to be helpful in keeping her stress levels down. Sandra was educated about the disorder and knew the risks of going off the medication. When her moods started to swing again after Debbie's death, they assumed it was just because of her grief. Debbie had been seen by a psychotherapist after Sandra's diagnosis to make sure she wasn't suffering from the same disorder.

Like her sister, Debbie had started with severe mood swings at the on-set of puberty, but since Debbie had always had a flair for the dramatic, it wasn't quite as obvious as it was with Sandra. By the time Sandra was diagnosed, Debbie was already over the age of eighteen. The Pelts couldn't force Debbie to seek treatment, but she had agreed to see Sandra's psychotherapist just to shut everyone up. The psychotherapist had concluded that Debbie was also Bipolar and needed to be put on Lithium to get it under control.

Debbie had considered psychology to be a form of junk science and refused to go on the meds. I was pissed by the revelation, and I was dangerously close to arresting the Pelts for whatever silly charge I could trump up, if only to waste as much of their time as they had mine. Finding out Debbie had been bipolar and it had gone untreated made the suicide easier to accept. Sandra had been the one to raise a fuss over it, and now I knew why the Pelts had wanted us to take a closer look.

They suspected their own daughter, Debbie's sister, may have had a hand in Debbie's death. This was mind boggling to both Pam and I. Gordon and Barbara Pelt sat in the gray room with the camera rolling and proceeded to explain.

"Debbie had a way of making her life seem very glamorous. She was dating a military man. She was jetting off to Las Vegas to see him." Gordon looked to his wife.

"We believed her when she said she was doing well. She seemed happy. We had no reason to think there was anything wrong." Barbara offered.

"But then after she died we were going through her things. We read her journals and realized just how wrong we were. Debbie was very unhappy, and the only person she felt comfortable talking to about it was Sandra because she knew what it was like to live with the manic episodes." Gordon folded his hands on the tabletop.

"_If_ she was suicidal, she didn't write about it." Barbara reached into her purse and handed over a leather bound book. "This was Debbie's."

"Her journal?" Pam took the book.

"Where did you get this?" I asked, looking back and forth between the Pelts.

"We took it. We..." Barbara looked to her husband.

"We already lost one child. We didn't want to lose both." Gordon held his wife's hand.

o.O.o.O.o

I got home at a respectable time to find Sookie washing dinner dishes. I grimaced at the idea that I missed having dinner with her. She didn't seem upset. If anything, she was apologetic for not waiting.

"Don't worry about it, Sookie. You need to eat." I poked at her side, which was much bonier than I wanted it to be. I'd never been a fan of rail thin women. I'd love Sookie no matter what size she was, but I wanted her to be healthy. At the moment, she wasn't.

"There's a plate for you in the microwave. You might want to warm it for just a minute," she looked over her shoulder and accepted the kiss I offered her.

"How did your interview go?" I asked as I started the microwave.

"Very well. I spent a few minutes with Claudine, and then I met with Niall Brigant himself. He looks like he could be my grandfather. He was very sweet and charming, which isn't surprising after spending the amount of time with Claudine that I have. We had a nice chat. Claudine showed me around the offices, and she made me an offer." Sookie was beaming.

"Sookie, that's great!" I pulled her into a hug. "What'd you say?"

"I asked for some time to think about it. I mean, the money and benefits are good. I just want to make sure it's a good fit." Sookie explained.

"That's smart." I agreed with her.

"I was thinking, though..." she trailed off. "I mean, I know this living together thing is temporary, but if I'm going to be working in Shreveport, I should probably start looking for a place closer. I mean, it makes sense. You're here. Work would be here."

"Well, we could have the talk about living together. Is that something you'd be interested in?" I asked her.

Sookie turned off the water and dried her hands. "Well, I don't know. I mean, I guess it would make sense. We hardly ever sleep alone anymore anyway. It doesn't really make sense to keep ourselves separate."

"True, but that's not why I'm bringing it up. I'm bringing it up because I want you around. All the time. I don't want you to go back to Bon Temps unless you're going to visit." I smiled at her.

She gave me one of those uncertain looks like she didn't know what to think. "Eric, I want to be with you, too."

"Okay, so that's something." I grinned at her, which made her grin, too. "Look, Sookie, if you're not ready, we don't have to. I just want you to know where I'm at."

She bit her lip nervously and asked, "Well, I mean, if we're going to live together...do you want to find a new place? I'd kind of like something that's ours."

"I have a friend that's a realtor. I can call her tomorrow." I offered.

Sookie thought it over for a minute before she said, "Okay. Let's do it. Let's live together."

"Are you sure?" I couldn't have stopped smiling if my face was surgically altered.

She took a deep breath and said, "I know I want you in my future, and living together seems to be the next logical step, so yes, I'm sure."

We celebrated our decision with a rather steamy make out session right there in the kitchen, but she still wasn't ready for sex yet. I was fine with waiting. I understood why she wasn't ready and I knew it was just a matter of time until she felt comfortable again. When she pulled the plug on the kissing, I let her slither away while I sat down to eat.

I had some notes to go over for work anyway. It still felt like there was something right under my nose that I was missing. I started looking at the various photographs that had been taken at all the different crime scenes I'd visited. Then I stared at Sandra Pelt's picture. She didn't share many of Debbie's traits, although their eyes were similar.

"Holy shit," I leaned in closer to the picture. "Sookie!"

"Yes, Eric?" she stood at my side and I showed her the picture of Sandra.

"Does that look like a birthmark to you?" I pointed to the spot under Sandra's lip and Sookie gasped.

"Oh my God," her face drained of color like she'd just seen a ghost. "Eric is that Sandra? She looks like Debbie. I never saw her face, but I'd know her voice if I heard it."

I nodded and put the picture away. "We'll find her, Sookie."

I just didn't know where the fuck to look.

o.O.o.O.o

Two days later Sookie called Claudine to accept the job offer with the Crane Foundation. More than anything, Sookie was excited about having health insurance, something her job at Merlotte's didn't offer. We had a brief conversation about money, since it was going to be something we would have to discuss at some point and it just made sense to get it out of the way. Sookie admitted to still having a school loan she was paying off, but otherwise, her credit was in good shape.

She tried to save money, but it never seemed to last too long. I, on the other hand, already had a retirement fund started and a percentage of each paycheck went into a separate savings account I never touched. We agreed that in living together, we would open a joint account to deposit funds in for the household bills, but still maintain separate accounts as well. We decided to hold off on the amount we would deposit until after we found a property we were interested in.

Selah was thrilled to hear from me. We'd met when I was still on patrol and someone had vandalized one of the houses she was showing. At the time, I was looking to move out of the dingy first apartment I had after the academy. It was a few months before I took the exam to become a detective, and as soon as I found out I was being promoted, I'd called her. She'd shown me a few places, but I wasn't really ready to buy a house just yet. So, she started showing me condos and apartments for sale. To this day, I have no idea what the difference is between the two.

I guess I technically own a condo, but it's all semantics, if you ask me. The point is, I was going to have to put my current place on the market. I told her I wanted to sell my place and find a real house, and I swear, she probably thought she'd won the lottery. We made an appointment for her to come by and check out my apartment after I had a chance to get it a little more cleaned up. In the meantime, she had some free time in her schedule, and invited me to come check out some properties.

Since Sookie wasn't busy, we decided we'd go. I could immediately tell Selah was disappointed to see I'd brought Sookie along. "Is this your sister?" Selah asked.

"Uh, no, this is my girlfriend, Sookie Stackhouse. Sookie, this is Selah Pumphrey." I gestured between the two women.

"It's nice to meet you, Selah," Sookie held out her hand.

Selah barely touched her before saying, "Likewise," with a hint of snobby disgust in her voice before turning her back to gather some papers.

Sookie shot me a 'what the fuck' look before turning her face toward Selah again. I just shrugged since I didn't know what Selah's problem was. She grabbed her bag and a clipboard before ushering us out of the office. We followed behind her in my car, again, to her disappointment.

"She's not usually so brusk." I told Sookie once we were in the car.

"Yeah, well, kitty can put away her claws. You're spoken for." Sookie yanked her seatbelt into place.

I laughed and started the engine. "Maybe she's just having a bad day."

"Or maybe she was hoping to take a ride on your disco stick." Sookie glared at me. "Is she an ex?"

"What? No! She's just a friend. An acquaintance, really. She sold me the place I'm in now. I haven't talked to her since I moved in."

Sookie folded her arms and stared murderously at the back of Selah's BMW in front of us. The rage she wasn't really trying to hide was sort of amusing. I'd never seen Sookie's jealous/possessive side before. It certainly seemed like I was in for an interesting afternoon. We pulled up to the first house a short time later, and before we even got out of the car, Sookie was shaking her head.

"It's too big. We don't need a house this big." Sookie said in an angry whisper as we walked toward Selah.

"Let's just check it out," I reached for her hand as we got to Selah.

The house was a nice brick Colonial built three years before in a nice neighborhood. There were six bedroom, five bathrooms and about 2,000 too many square feet. It was also way out of our price range. Sookie and I weren't interested in owning a mansion. Sookie whispered a suggestion that Selah had been hoping to someday live there with me and raise our kids in that house. Her jealousy over Selah was unnecessary, but it was cute more than it was frustrating. We passed on that house. Selah took us to a few more houses that were eerily similar to the first place, which only made Sookie increasingly more angry with Selah.

The last place she took us to was a small white house black shutters, a porch swing and a gated yard. There were plenty of places for Sookie to hang flower baskets and the porch railing was wide enough for box planters. The inside of the house had a pretty open floor plan in the common areas. There were two fireplaces, a separate dining room and a nice stone patio out in the back. It was obvious by the way Sookie's face lit up that she was in love with the place.

We moved from room to room with Sookie making commentary about what she'd change and what she loved just the way it was. The kitchen was the only thing she wasn't wild about. It was rather cramped, but nothing that couldn't be fixed with some rearranging or maybe by knocking out a wall. We didn't make an offer since it was just the first day and we wanted to check out some more places before putting in an offer, but Selah did give us a printed copy of the specifics on the house.

Sookie was asking questions about the year tax breakdowns when my phone rang. It was Pam calling to tell me we had DNA results on the cigarette butts we found outside the house. I was shocked by what came back.

"Well, Frannie Quinn was definitely there," Pam told me. "Guess who else was there?"

"The Queen of England?" I snarked at her.

"Not quite. Victor Madden."

It took a minute before the name registered in my brain. "Victor Madden, as in the second in command for El Rey?"

"The one and the same." Pam's smirk was audible. "Now, what do you suppose he was doing in Louisiana with the Tiger's little sister?"

I had a pretty good idea. "Well, I guess we're going to have to have a little chat with Mr. Madden."

"I was thinking the same thing. Las Vegas Metro already has a warrant to go pick his ass up."

"If you were my type, Pam, I'd kiss you right about now." I shook my head.

"Go kiss your girlfriend instead, then get your ass in here. It's time to rattle some cages." Pam's adrenaline was probably pumping as much as mine was.

The real fun was about to begin. The house of cards was about to come tumbling down.


	14. So Perfect

I'm posting this today for **symphonic_poem** in hopes that she won't actually shoot me and run me over with the Impala. Calm your tits, woman haha.

* * *

Chapter 14: So Perfect

I got myself in to see Janice, who managed to turn my hair into something stylish and manageable. It was still shorter than I'd even worn it, but at least she didn't have to get the clippers out to fix it. I ended up with a haircut very similar to Alyson Hannigan in the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was just fine with me. I'd made a deal with Claudine that I wouldn't start until I was more healed from the chemical burns I'd suffered, which she was just fine with.

The change, I found, was actually good. The haircut had a little bit of sass to it. I decided to put a positive spin on my involuntary new look. I decided to look at the haircut as the start of a new chapter in my life. It sounded cliché, but maybe a new look was part of the new me. I was moving out of my house, starting a new job and I was in love with the man I was pretty sure I was going to marry.

Slowly but surely my fear of being alone began to fade. Giving Sam my notice at Merlotte's didn't really come as a surprise to him. He wasn't really expecting me to come back after what happened. He did, however, institute a new rule that no one would close alone anymore. He also installed some security cameras and changed the locks on the the doors. He felt guilty for asking me to work the night I was taken, as if he could have known what was going to happen. I didn't blame Sam any more than I blamed Eric.

In fact, I grew to blame exactly two people. The day Eric and I first went looking at houses, Frannie Quinn was arrested for assault, kidnapping, obstruction, resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer. That last charge came when she made the mistake of pulling Pam's hair and punching her in the stomach. A search warrant was served at Frannie's house where it was discovered her own mother was laying in filth (I could relate to how disgusting that was) and was going without her painkillers because Frannie had been drugging _me_ with them instead.

The search also indicated Frannie had been following me for quite a while. The closet in her bedroom was wallpapered with pictures of me and the people and places I was at frequently. There were pictures of Eric and I at Don's Dock, me at Merlotte's, Gran's house, pumping gas at the Grab-It-Kwik, making bank deposits, having lunch with Amelia...she was everywhere I was. It was chilling to realize she'd been following me and I hadn't even noticed.

Finding Sandra proved to be a bit more difficult than anyone anticipated. I learned from Eric that she was bipolar and she'd gone off her medication. After doing a little research, I regressed a little, worried she might try again to hurt me. Eric had an officer at the front desk of his apartment building and he'd put a tiny camera in the decorative wreath that was hung on his front door so I could see who was on the other side without having to get anywhere near the door.

He also taught me some basic self-defense moves, which made me feel better than the cameras and extra bodies. It was also kind of fun. I think it made him feel better to know I felt more capable of looking after myself. The training made me more aware of my surroundings, which was part of the reason I'd been abducted in the first place. I started to pay closer attention to who was around me and all the things near me I could use to defend myself. It was nice that Eric was willing to go out of his way to make sure I was safe, but he couldn't be with me twenty-four hours a day. He had a job to do, and it wasn't babysitting me.

We looked at a few more properties, but the white house with the porch swing and the wrought iron gate stuck in my head. We went back a second time to take another walk around, and by the time we were done, I was convinced it was the right place. Eric had no objections, so we put in an offer on the house. He also put his apartment up for sale. I was a little nervous about strangers invading the space, but Eric had set it up with Selah to make visitations by open house only, so Eric and I wouldn't be there but a plain clothes officer would just in case Sandra showed up.

The night before my first day at my new job I came home from running errands to find a giant bouquet of various colored roses waiting for me. They smelled heavenly. There was a trail of candles directing me from the kitchen to the bedroom. I put the groceries that required refrigeration away and then slowly walked toward the back of the apartment.

Not that Eric couldn't be a romantic, but he'd never done anything like this before. I walked into the bedroom to find more flowers on the dresser but no sign of Eric. To say I was confused would be an understatement, but then he snuck up on me. My self-defense lessons kicked in and I ended up elbowing him in the solar plexus and stomping his foot. My poor boyfriend ended up on his bed, gasping for breath and cursing.

"Eric! Oh my God! I am so sorry!" I ran over to him, wanting to help but there wasn't much I could do but watch him gasp. "What were you thinking sneaking up on me like that?"

"Surprise," he said weakly.

"Aww, honey," I leaned over and kissed his face. "Well, at least your training worked?"

"Yay!" he rasped but couldn't look excited.

I couldn't help but laugh at the situation. It really was slightly ridiculous. "This is going to make a great story to tell our grand kids someday."

I sobered up when I realized what I'd just said. I moved Eric's hand away from his body and kissed the spot where I'd elbowed him. I'd been back for about two weeks at that point. We'd been sleeping in the same bed together every night and Eric hadn't made a single move on me that made me uncomfortable. He'd let me set the pace on everything, and his patience was about to pay off in a big way.

"Are you okay?" I asked him when his breathing started to return to normal.

"My foot hurts," he pouted a little, which made me frown.

"I'm so sorry." I felt terrible.

"You're a lot stronger than you look, lover," he gave me a weak smile.

"You scared the hell out of me. Was that some kind of test?" I shook my head slowly.

"It was a poorly executed attempt at surprising you," he admitted and turned on his side so we were face to face.

"What is all this, Eric?" I gestured around the room.

"I know you're nervous and excited about your job tomorrow and I wanted you to relax."

My smile grew and I leaned down to kiss him. "You're a very sweet man. I'm sorry I hit you."

"I'm sorry I didn't think about the consequences of sneaking up on you. That was pretty bad ass, Sookie." There was the familiar fire in his eyes that usually led to wonderfully naked things.

"I'm a lot of things but bad ass isn't one of them," I said in all seriousness.

"I disagree. There are a lot of people who wouldn't have survived the things you did mentally in tact. You've been a warrior about all of this, Sookie, and I'm very proud of you." His compliments made me blush.

I wanted to brush them aside, but I knew he would simply repeat himself over and over again until I accepted it as fact. With Eric, it was easier to just accept the things he said than try to fight him on it. So rather than fight, I thanked him and then kissed him. As usual, he let me set the pace and didn't complain when I pulled my shirt off.

There were a few small scars as a result of that horrible bleach bath I'd endured, and those were the first spots Eric kissed when he saw them. I was mostly healed at that point, thanks to balanced meals, medication and plenty of rest. Eric was a good guardian, making sure I was very well taken care of. I was surprised he didn't move to touch me when I took off my bra and tossed it on the floor.

Instead, I found myself stretched out on my stomach with Eric straddling my legs. His large hands worked all the tension out of my neck and shoulders before moving around my back. I hadn't realized I was tense until he found a spot in my lower back that made me groan a little louder than the other places he'd worked. The sounds I was making were an obvious turn-on, if the poking against my leg was an indication.

When I was so relaxed I was about to go to sleep, Eric turned me over and started the process again on my front. I quirked an eyebrow at him when he started massaging my right breast, but he was all business. His eyes asked for permission to remove my leggings. My response was to lift my hips. I don't think there's a single muscle in my body Eric didn't try to rub the tension from.

I shifted and giggled when he got to my feet. "Not the toes." I said in warning.

Eric smirked and said, "You mean this little piggy?" Then he kissed my big toe.

"Eric, don't, or you're going to end up getting kicked in the face and I already beat you up once today."

He laughed and switched to my other foot so he could work his way back up. He'd gotten to the top of my inner thigh, and once again his eyes found mine. I nodded slowly and watched his eyes as he touched me. I wanted to let my eyes roll back into my head. My lady business was doing its victory cheer and contemplating what sort of fruit basket to send my brain for finally getting back on board with sexing up Eric.

He was sweet and gentle and obviously very set on making love to me. There were no fancy tricks or crazy positions to twist myself into, but none of those things were necessary. His mouth and fingers moved expertly. His fingers inside me countered the rhythm of his tongue against my clit and when I was close, he backed off a little to draw it out and start over. I grabbed at the sheets and tried to keep still, but my hips started rolling, my heart started pounding and I was gasping for air.

"Eric, please, don't stop," I moaned and arched my back.

He went a little harder then to give me the release I needed, leaving me a quivering mess in the middle of his bed. My eyes closed and I took a series of deep breaths in attempts to get myself together. Eric's warm lips pressed against mine and his weight settled between mine legs, putting just a little pressure on my stomach and hips. My hands ended up in his hair, scratching lightly at the back of his neck and head. Our kisses deepened and I wrapped my legs around him to hold him closer to me. He pulled back just a little bit, his eyes meeting mine to ask that one last question.

"I want you, Eric," I stretched forward and nibbled his bottom before kissing it gently.

He entered me slowly and waited for me to move once he was buried inside me. We moved slowly together in what felt like a very well choreographed dance. After a while my legs unlocked and relaxed at his sides. I held his face in my hands while he kissed me. I felt my heart pounding in my ears and my hips raised to meet his thrusts.

When my back started to bother me thanks to the burns that weren't completely healed yet, we rolled so I was straddling him. He sat up so we were eye to eye. My hips rocked against him and he bent at a slightly awkward angle to kiss my breasts but quickly straightened up when I brought his face back to mine. My muscles started to clench and spasm, which made my hips move faster. One of Eric's hands slipped between us and his thumb rubbed against my clit while the rest f his fingers tried to curl around my hip.

He lay back and I leaned forward. His mouth attacked my breasts again while his knees bent behind me, his feet planting on the mattress for better leverage to thrust up. My hands grabbed at the sheets again as I started to come undone. The pressure deep in my belly built and built until it exploded. I screamed against his neck and snuggled against him when his arms wrapped around me. I was nibbling on Eric's Adam's apple when he finished with one last powerful thrust that sent aftershocks through me.

My head dropped onto his chest and I listened to the thundering of his heart as it raced under his skin. His hands moved to my hips, holding them gently for a minute before moving around to my butt. I smiled against him and then pushed myself up a little to look at his face. We smiled at each other and his hand came up to sweep some of my hair out of my face.

We snuggled for a while until my stomach started growling. We ended up ordering takeout and were watching a movie when the food arrived. It was a quiet night in, which was exactly what I needed. By the time we went to bed, I wasn't nervous about my first day at the Crane Foundation anymore.

I slept soundly that night and woke up easily when my alarm went off at six thirty. I kissed Eric's cheek before getting out of bed. I showered and got dressed. Eric was standing at the stove, scrambling eggs when I walked into the kitchen. Coffee was already made and he'd popped some bread into the toaster as well.

"You didn't have to do this," I stretched up and kissed him.

"I wanted to. You'd do it for me. Hell, you _have_ done it for me."

That was true. I'd gotten up plenty of times to find him in the shower. I'd start breakfast for him mostly because I knew he'd either skip it or end up getting something from that awful truck that parked itself outside the station in the morning. Just the smell of the food being cooked in there made my cholesterol shoot skyward. We ate breakfast together and then I went to fix my hair and makeup.

Eric was stretched out on the couch reading the morning paper when I came out of the bedroom, dressed and ready to go for my first day at a job that didn't require me to fetch coffee or cut someone off since I'd interned as a college student. Eric had even made me a lunch while I was finishing getting ready. I grabbed my purse and the lunch he'd made me and went over to the couch to kiss him goodbye.

"Have a good day," he smiled at me.

"You, too," I kissed him once more. "I'll call you when I take my lunch break and let you know how it's going."

"Sounds good. I should be home by seven."

I nodded, then left for work.

o.O.o.O.o

I figured I would have a cubicle at the Crane Foundation, but Claudine set me up in an office three doors down from hers. She explained that a lot of my job filing forms for benefits and distributing company memos to managers. I would also meet with each new employee to go over their benefits, and since that was personal business, a closed space was necessary.

I was taken to the I.T. Department, of all places, to get my personnel badge. I was going to need to swipe a card at the parking garage and then again in the building. Different employees had different levels of clearance. Obviously, people in accounting had no business in the research labs, therefore they weren't cleared to go there. Being part of human resources got me access to just about everywhere.

Claudine introduced me to the other department heads and gave me a bigger tour than she had when I came in for my second interview. Her twin brother, Claude, was the art director in the marketing department. He worked closely with the publicists to make sure everything that left the office in regards to the services they offered looked beautiful. He had that snobby, know-it-all attitude that was a real turn-off. It was hard to believe he was related t Claudine at all, much less her twin.

Claudine gave me an office supply catalog to pick out whatever supplies I needed to make myself feel at home. I asked about the budget and she merely waved it off, telling me the cost of a footrest was worth it if it made me feel comfortable.

"Feel free to bring in an iPod dock or a radio if you like. Of course, we also have internet here so you can stream radio if you prefer to keep your desk less cluttered. We do have firewalls, so you won't be able to access social networking sites, but you will be able to get yahoo, hotmail and gmail. We will also be issuing you a company laptop so you can work from home if the need ever arises." Claudine stood with her back to me, staring out the windows at the small courtyard. "You'll also be getting a corporate cell phone so you don't have to use your personal phone for business contacts. We're a pretty high tech organization."

"Sounds like it," I smiled at her back.

"You should know we also get protesters here from time to time on account of the research we do. They're usually harmless, thinking we use animals for testing, which we don't. We've been very open about our practices from the start, but that doesn't stop the conspiracy theorists from thinking we're covering something up."

"So the protests don't get violent?"

"Not so far." Claudine turned around. "Sookie, we cover a wide variety of interests. The season is about to change, but over the winter we're looking to expand the number of camps we run for kids. That means staffing those places. We'll be having job fairs, doing some pretty heavy recruiting and it's going to mean a lot of paperwork for the human resources department. The hours are going to be long, but it'll be worth it if we can make the lives of under privileged kids better."

"I agree," I nodded. "My parents died when I was young. I don't think summer camp would have made it all better, but the therapy would have helped. Just knowing other kids were going through the same things as me would have made it easier to deal with."

"Good. I'm glad you're on board." Claudine smiled warmly. "Well, I have a conference call with the camp directors down at Lake Charles, but if you need anything, you know where to find me."

"I do. Thank you, Claudine."

"You're welcome," she winked, then left my office.

I sat back in my seat and looked around for a moment. My cell phone buzzed in my desk drawer and I scrambled to answer it, knowing it was either Eric or Gran calling. Eric's picture flashed on the display and I smiled.

"Hey, Eric, what's going on?" I smiled at the ceiling.

"I have good news and bad news." He sighed and sounded pretty stressed.

"Uh oh. Well, give me the good news first."

"The good news is our offer on the house was accepted."

"That's great," I shot out of my chair. I really, really loved the house. "What's the bad news?"

"Sandra's dead. She hung herself in her parent's house some time last night."

I sank back into my seat, unsure how I was supposed to feel about it. "She's dead?"

"The good news is, she left a note. She confessed to kidnapping you and being the one who tortured you. She claimed, however, that Frannie was the mastermind of the whole thing."

"What else? There's something you're not telling me." I said when he stayed quiet for too long.

"Sandra blamed you for Debbie's death. She believed that if you hadn't gotten involved with Alcide, he would have gotten back together with Debbie." Eric explained sadly. He sounded exhausted.

"That's crazy, Eric."

"I know. I talked, at length, with both Alcide and Maria-Starr. No way was he going to get back together with Debbie."

"So what about Debbie's death? Did she say anything about that?"

"No. We have nothing to tie Sandra to Debbie's death."

I sighed and turned my chair toward the window. "Are they sure it was a suicide?"

"She wasn't on her meds, Sookie. Her manic episodes could have caused this."

"Or maybe her partner wanted to make sure she'd never talk." I muttered under my breath.

"We're working that angle, too. I'm going to be in the office later than I thought, but I wanted you to know Sandra isn't a concern anymore. Frannie and Victor are still in lock up, so you should be safe now."

Yeah, I probably should have been, but I didn't feel that way. I didn't feel that way at all.

* * *

*sigh* Yeeeeeeeeah, so we're a little closer to closing the case. Happy Valentine's Day, lovers!


End file.
